THE 

BOOK 

OF THE 

IN A SERIES OF LETTERS 

ADDRESSED TO 

ROBT SOUTHEY.Esa. ll,d. 

ON HIS 

" BOOK OF THE CHURCH." 

/ 
/ 

By CHARLES BUTLER, Esq. 

Hsjc a quovis alio quam a me, scribi velim; a me,potius quara a neniine. 



LONDON: 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 

MDCCCXXV. 



I 



Luke Hansard & Sons, 
near Liucoln's-Ian Fields. 



TO 



CHARLES BLUNDELL, ESQ. 

OF INCE-BLUNDELL, 

IN THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER. 



DEAR SIR, 

I REQUEST your acceptance of my 
Reply to Southey's " Book of the 
Church a work with which you probably 
are not unacquainted. 

It abounds with the strongest criminations 
of the roman-cathohc rehgion, and of the 
conduct of our roman-cathohc ancestors. 
I do not recollect that a publication more 
offensive, either to the understandings or the 
feelings of the roman-catholics, has appeared 
within our memory. 

a 2 



( iv ) 

I willingly admit, that, to produce against 
our creed or conduct, all that research or fair 
argument can supply, is legitimate contro- 
versy ; but surely, to conceal, or to represent 
our merits very briefly and imperfectly, and 
to display our defects at length, and with 
the highest colouring ; to impute to our general 
body what, in justice, is only chargeable on 
individuals; or to esfimate the writings or 
actions of our ancestors in the dark ages, 
by the notions and manners of the present 
age, — is a crying injustice. 

Does not doctor Southey too often fall 
into all these errors ? Is he sufficiently aware, 
— that the roman-catholics have sustained a 
defamation of three hundred years ? — That, in 
consequence of it, an immense mass of pre- 
judice was raised against them ? That it yet 
retains its place in many uninstructed minds ; 
and that it is not wholly eradicated from all 
the Hberal and the informed ? None of these 
believe that London was set on fire by the 



( V ) 

roman-catholics, or in the truth of Oates^s 
revelations : But the prejudice originally 
created by these fictions, has not entirely lost 
its effect : it still influences some respectable 
persons, in their opinions of the roman-catholic 
religion, much more than they are aware of. 

This prejudice, " the Book of the Church '' 
is admirably calculated both to keep alive and 
to increase: — To counteract its tendency is 
the object of the present pages. If doctor 
Milner had framed " his Strictures upon 
the " Book of the Church on a more exten- 
sive plan, it would have made this or any other 
answer to it unnecessary. 

Such as my pages are, — I inscribe them 
TO YOU : I hope they do not contain a word, 
at which the very learned, elegant and elo- 
quent author of the work, to which they are 
addressed, can take just offence. My publi- 
cations are numerous, — perhaps too numerous : 
— but I trust they do not contain one harsh 

a 3 



( vi ) . 

word ; one, by which I have ever offended, 
either against charity, or even against civihty. 

No person admires more than I do, the 
golden sentence of St. Francis of Sales, — 
that " a good christian is never outdone in 
" good manners/' 

With the greatest respect, 

I have the honour to be. 
Your most obedient Servant, 

CHARLES BUTLER. 



Liacoln's-Itm, 
4 November 1824. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction page i 

I.— The proper Style of Controversy - - - 2 
The Creed of Pope Pius IV. ... 5 
HI. — Observations on such of the Articles in it as are 
expressed in general terms . - _ 8 
IV. — Application of these Observations to doctor Southey's 
Charge against the Roman-catholic Church, that 
her Doctrines are corrupt - - - - 1 1 

LETTER I. 

A Geographical Vietv of the Roman-catholic Church - 15 
LETTER II. 

First Introduction of Christianity - - - - 20 
LETTER III. 

Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine - -.23 
1 .—History of it - - - - - 24 

2. — The perfect Conformity of the Religion preached 

by the Anglo-Saxon Missionaries, to that now 
taught by the Roman-catholic Church - 28 

3. — The Doctrine taught in Monasteries— Great Mis- 

representation of it by two eminent protestant 
Writers - - - - - 33 

4. - Miracles performed by the Anglo-Saxon Mission- 

'^"es - - 37 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER IV. 

Causes ivkich promoted the Success of Christianity/ among the 
Anglo-Saxons - page 50 

1.— The Conduct of the Missionaries its chief 

cause - ib. 

•3.— Unfounded Charge brought by doctor Southey 
against the Anglo-Saxon Clergy - - 52 
3. — Alleged purer Faith of the Welch - - 53 

LETTER V. 

Religion of the Danes — Their Conversion - - - 57 
LETTER VL 

Saint Dunstan - - - - - - - -55 

1. — Early YeaYs of Saint Dunstan - - - 58 

2. — The Conduct of Saint Dunstan towards King 

Edwin -------59 

3. — The Conduct of Saint Dunstan towards King 

Edgar 62 

4. — Saint Dunstan's Regulations for the Celibacy of 

the Clergy ------ 63 

5. — Saint Dunstan's Substitution of the Benedictine 

Monks to the Secular Canons - - - 65 

6. _The Miracles of Saint Dunstan - - - 68 

LETTER VIL 

1 . Charges against the Monks of withholding Knowledge, and of 
a Disposition to immoderate Severitt/ - - 72 

2. — Investitures — Saint Anselm 75 

LETTER VIIL 

Immunities of the Church — Saint Thomas a Becket - - 80 

LETTER IX. 

1. Cession hy King John of the Sovereignty of England to Pope 
Innocent III. ------- 91 

2. — Temporal Power of the Pope - - - - 93 



CONTENTS. 



ix 



LETTER X. 

View of Roman -catholic System - - - page 99 

1. — Devotion to the Virgin Mary — the Saints — respect 

to the Cross, and to the Relics of the Saints 100 

2. — Purgatory, and Prayers for the Dead - - 103 

3. — Auricular Confession — Indulgences - - 105 

4. — Saint Augustine and Pelagius - - - 113 

5. — Transubstantiation - - - - - 116 
6 1. The Authority of the Pope - - - 118 

2. Universal Doctrine of the Roman- catholics 

respecting the Supremacy of the Pope - 119 

3. Transalpine and Cisalpine Doctrines on the 

temporal and spiritual Power of the Pope 1 2 1 

4. Remarks on Doctor Southey's Crimination of 

the Roman-catholic Church, in consequence 
of the alleged intemperate Expressions of 
some of her Writers on the Pope's Autho- 
rity '-125 

5. Defence by a Roman-catholic Divine of the 

Roman-catholic Church, against Charges 
brought against her by the present Bishop 
of Winchester - - - - - 134 

LETTER XL 

Rise of the Reformation - - - - - 1 39 

1. — Rise of the Reformation— Persecution under the 

House of Lancaster . . - . 141 

2. — The Mendicant and other religious Orders of the 

Roman -catholic Church - - - - 148 

LETTER Xir. 
Henr^ FIIL - - - 167 

1. — Has England gained by the Reformation in tem- 

poral Happiness? 168 

2. — Has England gained by the Reformation in 

spiritual Wisdom ? - - - - - 1 70 

3. — Was the Reformation attended by a general Im- 

provement in Morals ? - - - - 172 



X 



CONTENTS. 



Henry F///.-— continued. 

4. — Was the Revival of Letters owing to the Reforma- 

tion, or materially forwarded by it ? - page 178 

5. — Was the Dissolution of Monasteries justified by the 

Conduct of the religious Orders ? - - 184 

6. — Was the Church of Rome negligent in remedying 



Ecclesiastical Abuses - - - - 187 
7.— Is doctor Southey's Abuse of former and pre- 
sent Catholic Historical Writers merited by 
them? - - - - - - - 190 

LETTER Xin. 
Edward VI. 187 

LETTER XIV. 

Queen Mary - - - - - 204 

1. — Persecution of the Protestants in the Reign of 
Queen Mary - - ' - - - - ib. 



2. — Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Latimer - 215 

3. — Character of Queen Mary's Reign - - 220 

LETTER XV. 

Queen Elizabeth - - - - - - -22:3 

1. — The Establishment of the Protestant Rehgion in 

the Reign of Queen Elizabeth — Observation 
on some Statements respecting it in " The 
Book of the Church" - - - - ib. 

2. — Summary of the Laws passed in the Reign of 

Queen Elizabeth against Roman- catholics - 230 

3. — Executions of the Roman -catholics under the 

sanguinary Code of Queen Elizabeth - 237 

4. — Justification of the Persecutions^ on the ground 

of the traitorous Principles of the Foreign Semi- 
narists, and the general Disloyalty of the Roman- 
catholics - 255 

5. - Justification of the Persecutions, on the ground of 

the persecuting Principles and Practices of their 
Church 058 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



Queen Elizabeth —continued. 

6 Justification of the Persecutions, from the alleged 

Plots against Queen Elizabeth - - page 263 
7. — The Spanish Armada ■■ - - - 265 

LETTER XVI. 

James I. 273 

1. ^The Gunpowder Plot - - - - ib. 

2. — The Oath of Allegiance required by James I. from 

the English Roman-cathohcs - - - 279 

LETTER XVIL 

Charles I. -------- 284 

1. — Artifices then used to inflame the Public Mind 

against the Roman-catholics — their Loyalty and 
Sufferings - - - - - - ib. 

2. — Solemn Judgment of Archbishops and Bishops of 

Ireland against the Toleration of the Roman- 
catholic Religion 302 

LETTER XVIIL 
Charles IT, ------- - 305 

1. — Doctor Southey's Defence of Charles IL's Viola- 

tion of his Promise, at Breda, to the Roman- 
catholics and Protestant Dissenters - - 306 

2. — Doctor Southey's various Criminations of the 

Roman-catholics in his present Chapter - 312 

3. — The Corporation and Test Acts - - - 315 
4 — The Act of the 30th of Charles IL which excludes 

Roman-cathohcs from sitting and voting in Par- 
liament - - 316 

5. — Oates's Plot - - » . _ 332 

6. — James the Second —Bill of Rights — Acts of Set- 

tlement - - - - - - 336 

7. — Conclusion— Doctor Southey's repeated Charge 

of Superstition and Idolatry against the Roman- 
catholics ------ 338 



xii 



CONTENTS. 



APPENDIX. 

NOTE I. — Opinions of Foreign Universities on the 
temporal Power of the Pope - - page 343 

NOTE II.— The Oath taken by the English Roman- 
catholics, under the Provisions of the Act passed 
for their Relief, in the Year 1791 - 345 



By the same Author, 

HISTORICAL MEMOIRS of the English, Irish, and 
Scottish Catholics, from the Reformation to the present 
Time ; — with some Account of the Ecclesiastical History of 
England before the Reformation, and of the Evangelical and 
Dissenting Congregations. 3d Edition, 4 vols. 8vo. 2 1. 85. 



REMINISCENCES. 4th Edition, 8vo. 9s. 6d, 



LETTERS 

TO 

DR. SOUTHEY, 

ON HIS 

BOOK OF THE CHURCH. 



INTRODUCTION. 

I. The proper Style of Controversy: — II. The Creed of 
Pope Pius IV. : — III. Observations on such of the 
Articles in it as are expressed in general terms: — 
IV. Application of these Observations to Doctor 
Southey^s Charge against the Roman-catholic Church, 
that her Doctrines are corrupt. 

SIR, 

I HAVE perused with great attention, your 
" Book of the Church," and find it to be, 
in many places, injurious to the roman-catholic 
church, and particularly so to the roman-catholics 
of England : under this impression, I address to 
you the following Letters. 



B 



2 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. 

Proper Style of Controversy, 

IN the year 1634, Pope Urban VIII. sent 
Father Jones, a Benedictine monk, called in reli- 
gion Father Leander, a Sancto Martino, into 
England, to procure for the holy see accurate in- 
formation, respecting the state of the established 
church ; the condition of the English catholics ; 
and the disposition of the government in their 
regard. On each of th^se heads, Father Leander 
made his report to his holiness. On the first, he 
thus expresses himself* : " The protestant church 
" retains an external appearance of the ecclesiastical 
" hierarchy, which was in force during the time 
" of the catholic religion ; it has its archbishops, 
" bishops, deans, archdeacons, chapters of canons 
" in the cathedrals of the antient sees, and most 
" ample revenues. It preserves its antient edifices, 

the names of its antient parishes, priests and 
" deacons ; a form of conferring orders, which 
" agrees, in most respects, with the forms pre- 
" scribed by the roman pontifical ; it preserves also 
" the clerical habits and gowns, the pastoral crook 
" and copes, the antient temples, parishes, churches 
" and colleges of magnificent structure, and attend- 
" ance on these is enjoined." — " In the greater 

number of the articles of faith, the English pro- 

* Clarendon's State Papers, vol. 1. page 197. 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

** testants of the established church are truly or- 
thodox ; as on the sublime mysteries of the 
Trinity, and the Incarnation ; on the economy 
of the redemption of man, and satisfaction ; 
through the whole almost of the controversies 
respecting predestination, grace, and free will ; 
the necessity and merit of good works, and the 
other articles expressed in the creed of the 
Apostles, in the Nicene and the Athanasian 
creeds, (as these stand in the roman-catholic 
liturgy), and in the four first general councils." 
When there is so near an approximation in reli- 
gious creeds, there certainly should be an equal 
approximation in christian and moral charity ; 
an equal wish to sooth, to conciliate, to find the 
real points of difference very few, and to render 
them still fewer; and an equal unwillingness on 
€ach side to say, or to write, any thing unpleasing 
to the feelings of the other. In this amicable spirit, 
the controversy between Limborch and Orobio, 
and the conference between Bossuet and Claude 
were conducted ; and in this spirit, it is hoped, 
the following pages will be found to be written. 
They are intended to be a reply to some passages 
in your "Book of the Church," which contain 
inaccurate accounts, either of the faith, or the 
conduct of roman-catholics. These appear to me 
to be so numerous, as to render it necessary, in 
order completely to exhibit and refute them, to 
follow you chapter by chapter. This task is not 
pleasant ; but I feel it due from me to my roman- 

B 2 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

catholic brethren. It will give me unspeakable 
pleasure to find I have executed it to their satis- 
faction ; and not offended the intelligent, or the 
candid, among their adversaries. What I consider 
to be truth, I must tell ; but I hope to tell it 
in a manner, which will show sincere respect for 
those, whose different notions it opposes. Harsh 
or contumelious words never yet served the cause 
of truth or reason : St. Francis of Sales has justly 
observed, that **a good christian is never outdone 
" in good manners." 

In the present introductory address, I shall insert 
the creed of Pope Pius IV, as an authentic expo- 
sition of the faith of the roman-catholic church. It 
contains a particular mention of most articles of 
her faith, and a general statement of the others ; 
on the last I shall offer some observations. 

I mean to proceed on the following plan : — 
The number of letters will be the same as the 
number of chapters in " the Book of the Church 
and each letter will notice what I consider to be 
proper subjects for animadversion in the chapter, 
which corresponds with it in number. As nothing 
of this nature occurs in the first chapter of " the 
" Book of the Church," I shall insert in my first 
letter some statements and remarks respecting the 
general diffusion of the roman-catholic religion over 
the world. 



INTRODUCTION. 



5 



II. 

The Creed of Pius IV. 

This celebrated symbol of catholic faith was 
published by his holiness in 1 564, in the form of 
a bull, addressed to all the faithful in Christ. It 
was immediately received throughout the univer- 
sal church ; and, since that time, has ever been 
considered, in every part of the world, as an accu- 
rate and explicit summary of the roman-catholic 
faith. Non-catholics, on their admission into the 
catholic church, publicly repeat and testify their 
assent to it, without restriction or qualification. 
It is expressed in the following terms : 

" I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, 
" Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things 

visible and invisible ; and in one Lord Jesus 
" Christ, the only begotten Son of God; Light of 
" Light; true God of true God; begotten, not 
** made; consubstantial to the Father, by whom all 
" things were made ; who, for us men and for our 
" salvation, came down from heaven, and was in- 
" carnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, 
" and was made man ; was crucified also for us 
" under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, 
** and rose again the third day, according to the 

scriptures, and ascended into heaven ; sits at the 
" right hand of the Father, and will come again 
" with glory to judge the living and the dead, of 

whose kingdom there will be no end : and in the 
B 3 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

" Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life Giver, who pro- 
" ceeds from the Father and the Son ; who, to- 
** gether with the Father and Son, is adored and 
" glorified ; who spoke by the prophets : and one 
" holy catholic and apostolic church, I confess one 

baptism for the remission of sins ; and I expect 
" the resurrection of the body, and the life of the 
" world to come. Amen. 

" I most firmly admit and embrace apostolical 
" and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other consti- 

tutions and observances of the same church. 

" I also admit the sacred scriptures, according to 
" the sense which the holy mother church has held, 
" and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of 
" the true sense and interpretation of the holy 
" scriptures 5 nor will I ever take or interpret 
" them otherwise, than according to the unani- 
" mous consent of the fathers, 

I profess also, that there are truly and properly 
** seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by 
" Jesus Christ our Lord, and for the salvation 

of mankind, though all are not necessary for 

every one; viz. baptism, confirmation, eucharist, 
" penance, extreme unction, order, and matrimony, 
" and that they confer grace ; and of these, baptism, 
" confirmation and order, cannot be reiterated with- 
" out sacrilege. 

** I also receive and admit the ceremonies of 
" the catholic church, received and approved in 
" the solemn administration of all the above-said 
" sacraments. 



1 



INTRODUCTION. 

" I receive and embrace all and every one of 
" the things, which have been defined and declared 
" in the holy council of Trent, concerning original 
" sin and justification. 

*Vl profess likewise, that in the mass is offered 
" to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice 
" for the living and the dead; and that in the 
" most holy sacrifice of the eucharist there is truly, 
" really, and substantially the body and blood, 
" together with the soul and divinity of our Lord 

Jesus Christ ; and that there is made a conversion 
" of the whole substance of the bread into the 
" body, and of the whole substance of the wine into 
" the blood, which conversion the catholic church 
" calls transubstantiation. 

" I confess also, that under either kind alone, 

whole and entire, Christ and a true sacrament 
" is received. 

" I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, 
" and that the souls detained therein are helped 
^* by the sui&ages of the faithful. 

" Likewise, that the saints reigning together 
" with Christ, are to be honoured and invocated, 
" that they oifer prayers to God for us, and that 
" their relics are to be venerated. 

" I most firmly assert, that the images of Christ, 
** and of the Mother of God ever virgin, and also 
" of the other saints, are to be had and retained 5 
* and that due honour and veneration are to be 

given them. 

** I ako affirm, that the power of indulgences 
B 4 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

" was left by Christ in the church, and that the 
*' use of them is most wholesome to christian 
" people. 

" I acknowledge the holy catholic and apostolical 
roman church, the mother and mistress of all 

*^ churches ; and I promise and swear true obedience 
to the roman bishop, the successor of St. Peter, 

" the prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus 

" Christ. 

" I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other 
" things delivered, defined, and declared by the 
" sacred canons, and general councils, and par- 
" ticularly by the holy council of Trent; and 

likewise I also condemn, reject and anathematize 
" all things contrary thereto, and all heresies what- 

soever condemned and anathematized by the 
** church. 

" This true catholic faith, out of which none 
** can be saved, which I now freely profess, and 
*^ truly hold, I, N. promise, vow and swear most 

constantly to hold and profess, the same whole 

and entire, with God's assistance, to the end of 

my life. Amen/* 

III. 

Observations on such of the Articles of Faith, contained 
in the Creed of Pope Pius IV. as are expressed in 
general terms. 

Detailed accounts of these would not suit the 
plan of these letters. On all of them I beg leave 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

to suggest, that in every religious controversy 
between protestants and roman-catholics, the fol- 
lowing rule should be rigidly observed : — That 

NO DOCTRINE SHOULD BE ASCRIBED TO THE 
ROMAN-CATHOLICS AS A BODY, EXCEPT SUCH AS 
IS AN ARTICLE OF THEIR FAITH." 

Among the many misconceptions of their tenets, 
of which the roman-catholics have to complain, they 
feel none more than those, which proceed from a 
want of the observance of this rule. It is most true, 
that the roman-catholics believe the doctrines of 
their church to be unchangeable ; and that it is a 
tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has 
been, such it was from the beginning, such it now 
is, and such it ever will be. But this proposition 
they confine to the articles of their faith ; and they 
consider no doctrine to be of faith, unless it have 
been delivered by divine revelation, and propounded 
by the roman-catholic church, as a revealed article 
of faith. This the roman-catholics wish their 
adversaries never to forget. 

When any of their adversaries find, in any 
catholic writer, a position, which they think repre- 
hensible, they should inquire, whether it be an article 
of catholic faith, or an opinion of the writer. In 
the latter case, they should reflect, that the general 
body of the catholics is not responsible for it, and 
should therefore abstain from charging it upon the 
body. 

If they take the higher ground, they should first 
endeavour to ascertain, that it is an article of the 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

catholic faith. But here, again, they should care- 
fully examine, whether it be the principle itself, 
which they mean to impute to the catholics, or a 
consequence which they themselves deduce from it. 
These are widely different, and should never be 
confounded. If it be the principle, they should 
then inquire, whether it has been propounded as an 
article of faith by the church. A wise method 
of ascertaining this would be, to read the " Cate- 
^' chism of the Council of Trent.'' A proper pe- 
rusal, however, of that document requires attentive 
study. If they be unable to give it such a perusal, 
let them read Bossuet's Ea:positio7i of Faith^^* 
and consult Mr. Gother's " Papist Misrepre' 
" sented and Represented^'* or at least doctor 
Challoner's abridgment of it ; let them also read 
doctor Challoner's " Three Short Summaries of 
" Catholic Faith and Doctrine'* contained in 
three sections prefixed to his ^''Garden of the Soul'* 
the most popular Prayer Book of the English 
catholics. Having read these, let them ascertain, 
whether the doctrine, with which they charge the 
catholics, be, in terms or substance, stated in any 
of these works, to be an article of their faith. If 
they conceive that it is so stated, in any of them, let 
them insert in their publication the passage in which 
they profess to discover the erroneous tenet ; men- 
tioning explicitly the work, the edition of it, and 
the page in which it is contained. Should the 
passage be found, in terms or substance, in any of 
the works which have been mentioned, then it will 



INTRODUCTION, 11 

be incumbent on the catholics, either, to show that 
the writer, in whose work the passage is found, 
was mistaken, (which, from the acknowledged 
character of all the works, will, in all probability, 
never happen), or to admit that it is an article of 
their faith: the roman- catholics will then be justly 
chargeable with it, and with the consequences 
justly deducible from it. Whatever other opinions 
can be adduced, though they be the opinions of 
their most respectable writers, though they be the 
opinions of the fathers of their church, still they are 
but matters of opinion, and a catholic may disbe- 
lieve them, without ceasing to be a catholic. 
Would it not be both a fair and short way of 
ending the controversy between the protestants 
and catholics, that every person, who charges the 
general body of catholics with any religious tenet, 
should be obliged to cite, from the catechism of the 
council of Trent, or from one or other of the works 
which have been mentioned, the passage in which 
such tenet is contained and propounded as an article 
of faith? 

IV. 

Application of the preceding Suggestion to the charge of 
corrupt Doctrine and unjustifiable Practices, repeatedly 
brought against the Roman-catholic Body in " the 
" Book of the Church:' 

I REQUEST you to considcr with attention the rule 
which I have suggested : then to ascertain whether 
any doctrine, which you have imputed to the roman- 



12 



INTRODUCTION. 



catholics, or the sanction of any practice which you 
have charged upon them, is to be found in the 
creed of Pius IV, the council of Trent, in its cate- 
chism, or in any of the works which I have men- 
tioned, or in any other work of similar authority. 
If you find it in the council, in its catechism, or in 
any of the works which I have mentioned, the 
roman-catholics must abide the consequences. If 
you do not find it ; you may abuse the doctrine and 
those who maintain it, in any terms you think pro- 
per; but you are not entitled to charge it upon 
the roman-catholics : it is merely the imagination 
of an individual ; it is no part of the catholic 
creed. 

If any of the ridiculous doctrines which are 
maintained by any of the sectaries mentioned in 
a publication not unknown to you,— The Letters 
of Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella*,- — ^all of whom 
appeal to the scriptures, and protest against popery, 

* Espriella's list of them is curious: Arminians, So- 
" cinians, Baxterians, Presbyterians, New- Americans, Sa- 

bellians, Lutherans, Unitarians, Millenarians, Necessa- 
" rians, Sublapsarians, Supralapsarians, Muggletonians, An- 
" tinomians, Hutchinsonians, Sandemonians, Baptists, Ana- 
" baptists, Pcedobaptists, Methodists, Universalists, Cal- 

vinists. Materialists, Destructionists, Brownists, Inde- 
" pendants, Protestants, Hugonots, Non-jurors, Seceders, 
*^ Hernhutters, Dunkers, Jumpers, Shakers, and Quakers, 

&c. &c. &c.'' A precious nomenclature ! An interesting 
account of many of these sectaries is given in the " Histoire 
" des Sectes Religieuses, par M. Gregoire, 2 vols. 8vo. i8io." 
From this work Espriella might have considerably augmented 
his own list. 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

and are therefore, according to the protestant 
catechism^ published by the learned bishop of 
St. David's, to be deemed protestants — should be 
charged by a roman-catholic on a protestant of 
the church of England, as a tenet of his religious 
creed, might not the protestant justly require the 
Toman-catholic to point out the doctrine or the prac- 
tice thus charged upon him, either in the Bible, or 
at least in the Thirty-nine Articles, or the Liturgy? 
and, if it should not be found in any of these, would 
not the protestant be justly acquitted of all respon- 
sibility for it ? By parity of reason, — in all the 
cases, in which you charge the roman-catholics with 
corrupt doctrine, is not the roman-catholic entitled 
to require that you should point it out in the coun- 
cil, or in some or other of the works I have re- 
ferred to ? and if you should not find it, will not 
the roman-catholics be similarly entitled to an 
acquittal from all responsibility for it ? 

It is the same with respect to the practices, for 
which, in a multitude of instances, you have crimi- 
nated the roman-catholics, sometimes individually, 
but oftener collectively : May you not be justly 
required to show, that the council, or some of the 
works which have been referred to, contains the 
doctrine which prescribes, or sanctions, or excuses, 
the practice thus charged on the roman-catholics? 
and, if no such doctrine should be found in them, 
will you not be bound to retract the charge ? 

Here then I confidently take my stand. — I ac- 
knowledge that individual catholics have maintained 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

unjustifiable doctrines, and been guilty of unjusti- 
fiable practices ; but I insist on the production of 
the tenet, justly ascribable to the catholic creed, to 
which any such doctrine or practice can fairly be 
attributed. I aver, that no such tenet can be pro- 
duced : if it cannot, I claim for my church an 
acquittal from your charges. 

Does not this alone answer every charge in " the 
** Book of the Church ?" I admire the elegance, the 
energy of its style, and the many other beauties of 
composition with which it abounds ; but 1 find no- 
where in it a citation from any work, or any docu- 
ment, like those I have mentioned, which pre- 
scribes, or sanctions, or excuses any corrupt doctrine, 
or any unjustifiable practice. Till such a passage is 
found, much may be said about our creed, and 
about our practices. We ourselves should join in 
much of what may be so said ; but every charge, not 
substantiated in the manner I have mentioned, 

" Is but leather and prunella!" 

Pope. 



15 



LETTER I. 

A GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE 
ROMAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

SIR, 

THE smallness of the number of the roman- 
catholics in England, compared to that of its general 
population, is always before the eyes of protestants ; 
and too often prevents them from sulB&ciently at- 
tending to the general diffusion of the roman-catholic 
religion over the habitable globe ; or to the immense 
numerical superiority of its members over those of 
any protestant church, and even over those of all 
protestant churches in the aggregate. 

" The catholic,'' says doctor Milner, is still 

the religion of the states of Italy, of most of the 
" Swiss cantons, of Piedmont, of France, of Spain, 
" of Portugal, and of the islands of the Medi- 
" terranean ; in three parts in four of the Irish, of 
" far the greater part of the Netherlands, Poland, 
" Bohemia, Germany, Hungary, and the neighbour- 
" ing provinces ; and in those kingdoms and states 

in which it is not the established religion, its fol- 
" lowers are very numerous, as in Holland, Russia, 
" Turkey, the Lutheran and Calvinistic states of 
" Germany and England. Even in Sweden and 
" Denmark, several catholic congregations, with 
" their respective pastors, are to be found. The 
" whole vast continent of South America, inhabited 



16 EXTENSION OF THE [Letter 

by many millions of converted Indians, as well as 
by many Spaniards and Portuguese, may be said 
to be catholic. The same may be said of the 
^' empire of Mexico, and the surrounding kingdoms 
in North America, including California, Cuba, 
Hispaniola, &c. Canada and Louisiana are chiefly 
" catholic ; and throughout the United Provinces, 
" the catholic religion, with its several establish- 
" ments, is completely protected and unboundedly 
propagated. To say nothing of the islands of 
" Africa inhabited by catholics, such as Malta, 
Madeira, Cape Verd, the Canaries, the Azores, 
Mauritius, Goree, &c. there are numerous 
** churches of catholics established and organized 
" under their pastors in Egypt, Ethiopia, Algiers, 
" Tunis, and the other Barbary states on the 
" northern coast; particularly at Angola and Congo. 
" Even on the eastern coast, particularly in the 
" kingdom of Zanguebar and Monomotapa, are 
" numerous catholic churches. There are also 
" numerous catholic priests, and many bishops, 
" with numerous flocks, throughout the greater part 
of Asia. All the Maronites about Mount Li- 
" banus, with their bishops, priests and monks, are 
" catholics ; and so are many Armenians, Persians 
" and other christians of the surrounding kingdoms 
and provinces. In whatever island or states the 
Portuguese or Spanish power does prevail, or has 
" prevailed, most of the inhabitants, and in some, 
all of them, have been converted. The whole 
" population of the Phillippine Islands, consist- 



L] ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 17 

" ing of two millions of souls, is all catholic. The 
diocese of Goa contains 400,000 catholics. In 
a late parliamentary record, it is stated that in 
" Travancor and Cochin is a catholic archbishopric, 
" with two bishoprics ; one of which contains 35,000 
" communicants. There are numerous catholic 
' ' flocks, with their priests, and even bishops, in all 
^' the kingdoms and states 'beyond the Ganges, par- 
" ticularly in Siam, Cochin-china, Tonquin, and the 
" different provinces of the Chinese empire." 

Such is the extent of the roman -catholic religion. 
You describe it, in jthe last line of your tenth chapter, 
as "a prodigious structure of imposture and wicked- 
" ness." Is it decorous to apply this opprobious 
language to a religion professed in such extensive 
territories ? Several of which are in the highest 
state of intellectual advancement, and abound, as 
you must acknowledge, with persons, from the very 
highest to the very lowest condition of life, of the 
greatest honour, endowments and worth ? — If the 
religion of this large proportion of the christian 
world really be, " the prodigious structure of im- 
" posture and wickedness " you describe it, — have 
not the gates of hell, contrary to the most solemn 
promise of the Son of God, prevailed against his 
church ? I must also request you to inform me, 
when " this prodigious structure of imposture and 
" wickedness" was raised. You must be sensible 
the aeras assigned for it by many of your eminent 
writers are very different and very numerous. 
But, putting this universal diff usion of the roman- 
c 



18 EXTENSION OF THE [Letter 

catholic religion out of consideration, and confining 
these observations to the roman- catholic subjects of 
his Britannic majesty, permit me to observe to you, 
that the number of these, exceeds the number of 
any other denomination of his majesty's chris- 
tian subjects throughout his empire. Surely this 
entitles them to be treated with the language of 
decent controversy. Even confining the case to 
the English catholics, — the proportionate number of 
whom I acknowledge to be small, — even they are 
entitled to this decency of treatment. We are not 
the vilia corpora to whom the language, which 
modern manners has banished from conversation, 
should be applied. When I speak," said the 
late Mr. Wyndham, on presenting the petition of 
the English roman-catholics in 1810, "of the ob- 

scurity of the English roman-catholics, I do not 
** mean that they are destitute of hereditary vir- 
** tues and hereditary dignities, that they are not 
*' a part of that class which ought to be denomi^ 
" nated Ultimi Romanorum.^^ — (You see, Sir, 
that this great man thought, that a right to this 
appellation was honourable.) — 1 cannot/' he con- 
tinued, " contemplate a more noble and affecting 
" spectacle, than an antient roman-catholic gentle- 

man, in the midst of his people, exercising the 
" virtues of beneficence, humanity and hospitality. 
" If they are obscure, it is because they are pro- 
" scribed as aliens in the state ; because they are 
" shut out from this assembly, where many of those, 
*' who are far less worthy, are allowed to sit. 



I.] ROMAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 19 

" Have til ey ever exercised those vile arts, which 
" are exercised so successfully by many, to creep 
*' into power and place ? Have they ever attempted 
*' to obtain their rights, either by clamour or by 
" servility ? On the contrary, their conduct has 
proved that no other body is more justly entitled 
" to respect and admiration." This was the lan- 
guage of one of the most able statesmen, most 
accomplished scholars, most perfect gentlemen, and 
best judges of men and things in our times. 



c 2 



20 



INTRODUCTION OF 



[Letter 



LETTER 11. 

FIRST INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
SIR, 

WE know that Julius Caesar invaded Great 
. Britain fifty-four years before the birth of Christ ; 
that it was invaded by the Saxons, four hundred 
and forty-nine years after the christian aera. It is 
probable, that Christianity was disseminated over 
parts of England during the apostolic age. This 
was universally believed by our ancestors ; some 
have called it the first of the three coiwersions of 
England to Christianity. We are informed by the 
venerable Bede, and by several of our early his- 
torians, that, about the one hundred and seven- 
teenth year of the christian gera, pope Eleutherius, 
on the application of Lucius, a British prince, the 
third in descent from Caractacus, and particularly 
favoured by the Romans, commissioned two clergy- 
men Fugatius and Damianus, to preach the gospel 
to the Britons. This has been called the second 
of the three conversions of Britain to Christianity. 
Doctor Heylin"* asseits, that Lucius procured 
archiepiscopal sees to be erected at York, Caerleon 
upon Usk, and London, for the northern, southern, 
and western parts of England ; and suffragan 



* Help to History, p. 69. 



II.] CHRISTIANITY, 21 

bishops to be assigned to each. The concurrent 
testimonies of Tertullian, Eusebius, and Thesodoret, 
show, that Christianity made a considerable progress 
in the island, particularly in its southern parts. 
It was favoured by the extirpation of the religion 
of the Druids, whom the Roman arms had ex- 
pelled into Wales. The general persecution of 
Christianity, by the emperor Dioclesian, severely 
visited the christians of Britain. St. Alban, and 
Julius and Aaron of Caerleon, sufiPered death for 
the faith of Christ : the former is styled the proto- 
martyr of Britain ; his memory was always singu- 
larly venerated by the catholics of England. 

That much in the history of the two first con- 
versions of England is questionable, cannot be 
doubted. But does not equal doubt, at least, attend 
the early history, whether sacred or profane, of 
every nation ? Those who have read the learned 
and entertaining discussions of M. Ereret, and 
M. Beaufort, on the History of the Five First Cen- 
turies of Rome, must admit, that the popular 
accounts of the two first conversions of England 
are entitled to as much credit as the accounts given 
by the historians of Rome of the early period of 
her history; and that the documents, on which the 
history of the first conversions of England depend, 
approach much nearer than those of the antient 
Romans to historical certitude. It seems difficult 
to deny that they favour the catholic doctrine of 
the pope's supremacy, and his right of general 

c 3 



22 RELIGION OF THE [Letter IL 

superin ten dance over the spiritual concerns of the 
church of Christ*. 

* This letter was written, after having considered all the 
authorities collected upon the subject, in the first tome of 
the " Annales Ecclesiae Anglicanse, auctore R. Patre Michaele 

Alfordo, alias Grifjfith, Anglo, Societatis Jesu Theolego 
in four large folio volumes. His extracts from the original 
authors are so copious as to leave the reader, who wishes 
for original information, hardly any thing to desire. The 
writer also had perused with great attention the six first 
chapters of the first part of father Persons's " Treatise of the 
*' Three Conversions of the Church of Ergland," — a learned 
work, now become exceedingly scarce. 



ANGLO-SAXONS. 



23 



LETTER IIL 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS, 

SIR, 

IN this letter I shall particularly notice,— L The 
conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity : — 
IL The conformity of the religion, the religious 
ceremonial, and the morality preached to them, to 
the religion, the religious ceremonial, and the 
morality now taught by the roman-catholic church : 
— IIL Then consider your crimination of the 
Anglo-Saxon clergy, for their practices on the 
ignorance and credulity of the people : — IV. The 
doctrine taught in their monasteries ; the mis- 
representation of it by two eminent prote slant 
writers : — V. And the miracles performed in the 
roman-catholic church. 

The Saxons of Ptolemy lay between the Oder 
and the Elbe ; they afterwards extended them- 
selves from the Elbe over the Ems, and reached 
Francia and Thuringia on the south. Harderick 
was the first of their kings whose name is known 
to us ; he reigned ninety years before Christ. To 
him Hengist, who with his brother Horsia invaded 
England in 434, was fourteenth in succession. 
These princes, and their successors, made a com- 
plete conquest of England; they extirpated the 
pagan religion of Rome, established their own 
superstition throughout the island, and drove the 
Britons, who professed Christianity, into Wales, 
Ireland and Scotland, 

c 4 



CONVERSION OF 



[Letter 



III. 1. 

History of the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to 
Christianity. 

Sacred histoi'y contains nothing more edifying 
than the account of the conversion of the Anglo- 
Saxons. " It has often been remarked as a pecu- 
" liar merit of the christian religion, that it neither 
" arose from ambition, nor was propagated by the 

sword. It appealed unofFendingly to the reason, 

the sensibility, the virtue, and the interest of 
" mankind ; and it established itself in every pro - 
" vince of the Roman empire. When the torrent 
" of barbarians overspread Europe, to the destruction 
" of all arts and knowledge, Christianity fell in the 
"general wreck. Soon however in some districts 

she raised her mild and interesting form, and the 
" savages yielded to her benign influence. 

" Among the Anglo-Saxons, her conquest over 
" the fierce and wild paganism, to which our an- 
" cestors adhered, was not begun, till France, and 
" even Ireland, had submitted to her laws ; but it 
" was accomplished in a manner worthy of her be- 

nevolence and purity. 

" General piety seems to have led the first mis- 
" sionaries to our shores ; and the excellence of 

the system they diffused, made their labours 
" successful." 

With these expressions, our learned friend, 
Mr. Sharon Turner, introduces his account of 



III.] THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 25 

the propagation of Christianity among the Anglo- 
Saxons*. I beg leave to transcribe doctor Fletcher's 
succinct history of this event t; nothing of ray 
own could be' more true, or would be so elegant. 
I transcribe it from one of the sermons, addressed 
by him to his congregation, at Weston-Under- 
wood, in Buckinghamshire. 

" About twelve hundred years ago, and above 
" nine hundred years before the introduction of 
" protestantism, Augustine, with his companions, 
" brought the light of faith, into this island. They 
" derived their commission from the great, and 

only acknowledged, source of spiritual autho- 
" rity ; and in their faith and communion, they 

were united with every orthodox community 
" of the christian universe. Their faith, my 
" brethren, was the same which you and I adore at 
" present. In their private and public characters, 
" they were men eminent for their virtues, prac- 
" tising, not only the precepts, but the counsels of 
" the gospel ; despising all earthly satisfactions, and 
" attentive only to their own salvation, and to the 
" salvation of their neighbours. Their employ- 

mehts, when not engaged in the active occupa- 
" tions of their ministry, were prayer, watching, 
" penance, and mortification. As for their con- 
" duct in the sacred ministry, it was such as be- 

* Turner's " History of the Anglo-Saxons," 2d edition, 
book xiii. c. i . 

t Doctor Fletcher's Sermons on various Religious and 
Moral Subjects," vol. 2, p. 14, 



2(5 CONVERSION OF ■ [Letter 

" came apostles, —men deputed, by the command 
" of Heaven, to convey the blessings of the gospel 
" to pagan nations. They preached, and acted, as 
" did once the first envoys of Jesus Christ. Fired 
" with the love of God, and animated with charity 
" to their fellow-men, they joined the ardour of zeal 
** to the tenderness of benevolence. They gained 
" proselytes, but it was by the eloquence of truth, 
" assisted by the eloquence of meekness, humility 
" and piety ; verifying, in the whole series of their 
" conduct, that pleasing sentence of the prophet, — 
" * How beautiful on the hills are the footsteps of 
" * those who bring glad tidings /' " 

" Neither were the exertions of their charity un^ 
" attended by the approbation of Heaven. Not only 

contemporary historians attest, but several pro- 
" testant writers allow, that God rewarded them 

with the gift of miracles. Even the fierce enemy 
" of every thing that is catholic, the martyrologist 
" Fox, admits this fact, — a fact, which confirms 

both the holiness of the lives of these apostles, 

the lawfulness of their mission, and, by a most 
" logical inference, the truth of the holy religion 
*^ which they were labouring to establish. ' The 

^ Kingy^ says Fox, ^ considered the honest con- 
*' * versation of their lives, and was moved with 
" Hhe miracles wrought through God's hand by 
" ' them^: 

Under the influence of the sanction of such 
" authority, united to the influence of the methods 

, * Acts and Monuments, col. 2. 



III.] THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 27 

" by which these holy men propagated the maxims 
" of religion, it is easy to imagine what would be 
" the fruits and effects which resulted from them. 

The fruits and effects were striking, — such pre- 

cisely as that zeal is calculated to produce, which 
" is blessed by the approbation of Heaven. A 

people, hitherto rude, savage, barbarous and im- 
" moral, was changed into a nation mild, benevolent, 

humane and holy : ' Every things' says Collier, 
« < hrightened, as if nature had been meUed down 
" * and recained.^ 

With these accounts of the conversion of our 
Anglo-Saxon ancestors, an English reader must be 
pleased. In eighty-two years from the arrival of 
St. Augustine, this mild, holy and beneficent reli- 
gion, which he preached, was spread in every part 
of Anglo-Saxon England. 

In the course of time the xlnglo-Saxons them- 
selves became missionaries ; and, with the same 
edifying zeal and prudence which had distinguished 
their first apostles, carried the faith of Christ into 
many foreign nations, then involved in idolatry. In 
less than a century from the death of St. Augus- 
tine, the converts made by him preached the faith 
of Christ on the banks of the Oder, the Rhine and 
the Danube. St. Wilfrid preached the Gospel in 
Friesland ; St. Willibrod to the Frisons ; St. Boni- 
face to the central and southern Germans, St. Willi- 
had to the northern ; his disciples to the Danes ; 
St. Sigified to the Swedes ; and Haco, the king of 
Norway, was assisted by Anglo-Saxon missionaries 



28 DOCTRINES PREACHED. [Letter 

in the conversion of liis subjects. Many of these 
apostolical men suffered martyrdom in the exercise 
of their religious labours. In all these missions the 
preacher was either originally sent, or subsequently 
invested with missionary powers, by the see of 
Rome*. 

An account of the literature and arts of the 
Anglo-Saxons is foreign to these pages : I imdte all 
the readers of these letters to a perusal of what is 
said on this pleasing subject by doctor Lingard. 
They will acknowledge, that a much greater pro- 
gress than could have been expected was made by 
the Anglo- Saxon.s in the sublimest sciences ; in 
many useful and ornamental arts ; and in almost 
every other pursuit that has a tendency to increase 
the well-being of mankind t. 

III. 2. 

Conformity of the Religion preached to the Anglo-Saxons, 
to that 710W taught hy the Roman-catholic Church. 

The religion of a nation may be divided into its 
creed, its ceremonial, and its morality. 

1. The Apostles' creed was taught by the Anglo- 
Saxons as it is now taught to us. How large, a pro- 
portion of the articles of their and our faith are 
contained in this venerable document ! The doc- 

* See doctor Lingard's Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon 
Church, c. 13. 

t Ibid. c. 10. I have the greater pleasure in referring to 
doctor Lingard and Mr. Sharon Turner's works, on account of 
the authorities with which they always favour us. 



III.] DOCTRINES PREACHED. 29 

trines of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, respecting the 
supremacy of the pope ; the real presence of Christ 
in the eucharist ; the seven sacraments ; the invo- 
cation of the Virgin Mary, and the other saints ; 
and prayers for the dead, were the same as 
ours. Without entering upon any exposition or 
discussion of their creed, we beg leave to refer 
our readers to what has been written on this sub- 
ject by doctor Lingard, in his Antiquities of the 
Anglo-Saxon Church and by Mr. Manning, 
in his England's Conversion and Reformation 
" compared f 

2. To the former of these authors we refer for 
indisputable proof, that there was no important 
difference between the religious ceremonial of the 
Anglo-Saxons, and that which now prevails in the 
roman-catholic church ; and that, in points com- 
paratively indifferent, there is as little variation 
between them, as might be expected from the 
natural change of every thing, that is of human 
institution, or of human management. Most pro- 
testants, (but too often in criminatory language), 
admit this fact. What," says doctor Hum- 
phreys J, " did Gregory and Augustine bring into 

' * See doctor Lingard's Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon 
Church, c. 6j 7, 8, 9. 

t Second Dialogue, s. 7, 8, g. 

J Jesuitismi, page 2. — Citations of passages to the same 
effect from writings of eminent protestant divines might 
easily be multiplied. Many are collected by father Persons 
in his " Three Conversions of England," part the 1st, c. 9, 10 ; 
and in Brerely's " Protestants Apology for the Roman 
Church," Tract 2, s. 1. 



30 DOCTRINES PREACHED. [Letter 

" England? Purgatory, the offering of the whole- 
" some sacrifice, prayers for the dead, relics, tran- 

substantiation, &c. and the rest of the confused 

heap of popish superstitions." 

3. The morality^ which the apostolic missionaries 
taught their Anglo-Saxon flocks, was that of the 
gospel. I ask every candid protestant whether 
this does not incontestibly appear from the writings 
of the venerable Bede ? May I not confidently 
call upon all, who are conversant with those valu- 
able pages, to inform me whether the gospel incul- 
cates a single duty, or recommends a single practice, 
which does not appear to have been taught and 
- recommended by the apostles of the Anglo-Saxons, 
and their successors ? 

Much of what is said in the chapter of 
"the Book of the Church," which now engages 
our attention, respecting the conversion of the 
Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine, will be read by 
every roman-catholic with pleasure ; the following 
passage will be read by them with surprise and 
concern. You mention a vision, related to have 
been seen by Laurentius, one of the missionaries : 

This," you affirm, ** must be either miracle, 
" fraud, or fable. Many such there are in the 

history of the Anglo-Saxon, as of every Romish 
" church ; and it must be remembered, that, when 
" such stories are mere fables, they have, for the 
" most part, been feigned with the intent of serving 

the interests of the Romish church, and promul- 

gated, not as fiction, but as falsehood, with a 

fraudulent mind. The legend which is here 



nr.] DOCTRINES PREACHED. 31 

related, is probably a v^onder of the second class. 
The clergy of that age thought it allowable to 
" practise upon the ignorance and credulity of a 
" barbarous people, if by such means they might 
bring forward the work of their conversion, 
or induce them, when converted, to lead a more 
religious life. Whether they thought thus or 
not, it is certain that thus they acted ; and it is 
** not less certain, that a system which admitted of 
" pious fraud, opened a way for the most impious 
abuses." In the next chapter you say, ** the mis- 
" sionaries were little scrupulous concerning the 
" measures which they employed, because they 
** were persuaded that any measures were justifiable 
" if they conduced to bring about the good end, 
" which was there aim." 

Here we particularly lament your avowed plan 
of withholding from your readers, your authorities 
for your assertions. To support the charge which, 
in the passage I have cited, you make against the 
Anglo-Saxon clergy, it was incumbent upon you to 
bring authentic evidence to prove their having pub- 
lished or practised fictions in the manner you have 
described ; to produce instances of it so numerous, 
as must justly fix the guilt on the general body of 
the Anglo-Saxon clergy ; and to show that they 
acted on these occasions, not in consequence of the 
general weakness, or pravity of human nature, but 
under the impulse or sanction of their church or 
her doctrines. 

Nothing of this kind have you brought forward : 



32 DOCTRINES TAUGHT. [Letter 

all therefore that you say is mere accusation. To 
oppose, however, what you say, I shall transcribe a 
passage from one of the " Letters of the late 

Mr. Aiban Butler to Mr. Archibald Bower," 
the author of the History of the Popes."—" It 

is very unjust," says that very learned man, *' to 
''charge the popes, or the catholic church, with 
" countenancing knowingly false legends \ seeing 

all the divines of that communion unanimously 

condemn all such forgeries, as lies in things of 
"great moment, and grievous sins; and all the 
"councils, popes, and other bishops, have always 

expressed the greatest horror of such villanies, 

which no cause or circumstances whatever can 
" authorize, and which, in things relating to reli- 

gion, are always of the most heinous nature. 
" Hence the authors, when detected, have been 
" always punished with the utmost severity. 

" To instance examples of this nature would form 
" a complete history. For the church has always 
"most severely condemned all manner of forgeries^." 

* Similar passages may be found in almost all the roman- 
catholic controversial writers. We prefer that, which we 
present to our readers, on account of the acknowledged 
learning and moderation of Mr. Alban Butler ; the great 
esteem in which his writings are held by roman-cathoilcs of 
every country, and the respect which was shown him by 
many protestant divines of our own, as doctor Lowth, doctor 
Keanicot, doctor Pearce, and doctor Lort ; and because 
Mr. Alban Butler is the author of the Lives of the Saints," 
a work of uncommon erudition and piety, and universally 
admired. Translations of it have appeared in the French, 
Italian and Spanish languages. 



III.] IN MONASTERIES. 33 

III. 3. 

Doctrine taught in Monasteries, — great Misrepresentation 
of it by ttvo eminent Protestant Writers. 

If we credit doctor Robertson, " instead of aspir- 

ing to sanctity and virtue, which alone can render 

men acceptable to the great Author of Order and 
" Excellence, the clergy imagined that they satisfied 

every obligation of duty, by a scrupulous observ- 
" ance of external ceremonies. Religion, accord- 

ing to their conception of it, comprehended 
" nothing else ; and the rites, by which they per- 
" suaded themselves that they could gain the favour 

of Heaven, were of such a nature as might have 
" been expected from the rude ideas of the ages 
" which devised and introduced them. They were 
" either so unmeaning, as to be altogether unworthy 

of the Being to whose honour they were conse- 
" crated ; or so absurd, as to be a disgrace to reason 

and humanity. All the religious maxims and 
" practices of the dark ages," continues the royal his- 
toriographer in a note to this passage, " are a proof 
" of this. I shall produce one remarkable testi- 

mony, in confirmation of it, from an author 
" canonized by the church of Rome, St. Eloy, or 

Eligius, bishop of Noyon, in the seventh century. 

' He is a good christian who comes frequently 
" to church ; who presents the oblation, which 
" is offered unto God upon the altar ; who doth 
" not taste of the fruits of his own industry, until 

D 



34 DOCTRINES TAUGHT, [Letter 

he has consecrated a part of them to God ; who, 
when the holy festivals approach, lives chastely, 
" even with his own wife, during several days, that 
with a safe conscience he may draw near to the 
" altar of God ; and who, in the last place, can re- 
" peat the creed and the Lord's prayer. Redeem 
" then your souls from destruction, while you have 
the means in your power ^ offer presents and 
tithes to churchmen ; come more frequently to 
" church ; humbly implore the patronage of the 
" saints ; for, if you observe these things, you 
may come with security in the day to the tri- 
** bunal of the Eternal Judge, and say. Give to 
" us, O Lord ! for we have given unto thee.' 
" (Dacherii Spicilegium veter. Script, v. ii. p. 94.) 
The learned and judicious translator of doctor 
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, from one of 
whose additional notes I have borrowed this pas- 
" sage, subjoins a very proper reflection : * We see 
" here a large and ample description of a good 
christian, in which there is not the least mention 
of the love of God, resignation to his will, obe- 
" dience to his laws, or of justice, benevolence or 
charity towards men.' (Mos. Eccles. Hist. v. i. 

''p. 324.)" 

A charge, expressed in more direct or stronger 
terms against the clergy of the middle ages, for 
teaching a false and depraved system of morality, 
cannot be imagined. What then must be the sur- 
prise of the reader, when, from the perusal of the 
following passage in Mr. Lingard's learned and 



III.] MISREPRESENTED. 35 

elegant Antiquities of the Anglo-Sawon Church ^, 
he finds the whole to be an absolute misrepresenta- 
tion ? " From that period," says Mr. Lingard, — 
referring to the publication of doctor Robertson's 
History, — "this citation from the writings of St. 

Eloy, or St. Eligius, has held a very distinguished 
" place in evei y invective which has been published 
" against the clergy of former ages : and the defi- 

nition of the good christian has been re-echoed 
" a thousand times by the credulity of writers, and 

their readers. May I hope to escape the impu- 

tation of scepticism, when I own that I have 
" always been inclined to mistrust this host of wit- 

nesses, and their quotations ? I at last resolved 
*' to consult the original document ; nor were my 
" expectations disappointed. I discovered that the 

bishop of Noyon had been foully calumniated ; 

and that, instead of his real doctrine, a garbled 

extract had been presented to the public. That- 
" the good christian should pay the dues of the- 
" church, he indeed requires ; but he also requires, 

that he should cultivate peace among his neigh- 
" hours ; forgive his enemies ; love all mankind as 

himself ; observe the precepts of the decalogue ; 

and faithfully comply with the engagements 

which he contracted at his baptism." 

We insert the text of the bishop in a notef .^ 

* P. 91, note (B.) 

f " Non ergo vobis sufEcit, clarissimi, quod christianum; 

nomen accepistis ; si opera Christiana non facitis. Illi' 
" enim prodest, quod christianus vocatur, qui semper Christi 
" precepta mente retinet, et opere perficit ; quLfurtum, sci- 
D 2 



m DOCTRINES TAUGHT, [Letter 

The following is Mr. Lingard s translation of it : 
" It does not, therefore, most dear christians, suf- 
" fice to you, that you have received the christian 
" name, unless you do christian works. For to 
" him it avails to be called a christian, who always 
" keeps in his mind the precepts of Christ, and ful- 
" fils them by his works. Such is he, who does 
" not steal ; who does not bear false witness ; who 
** does not lie, or forswear ; who does not commit 
** adultery ; who hateth no one, but loveth all as 
" himself ; who does not return evil to his enemies, 
** but rather prayeth for them ; who does not raise 
" quarrels, but recals quarrellers to peace. On 

account of its similarity," continues Mr. Lingard, 
" I shall subjoin another description of the good 
** christian from an Anglo-Saxon prelate, Wulstan, 

archbishop of York : — ' Let us always profess one 
" true faith, and love God with all our mind and 
" might ; and carefully keep all his command- 
" ments, and give to God that part (of our sub- 

stance), which by his grace we are able to give ; 
** and earnestly avoid all evil, and act righteously 
" to all others ; that is, behave to others as we 

wish others to behave to us. He is a good chris- 

tian who observeth this 

** licet, non facit ; qui falsum testimonium non dicit ; qui nec 
mentitur, nec pejerat ; qui adulterium non committit ; qui 
" nullum hominem odit, sed omnes, sicut semetipsum, dili- 
" git ; qui iniraicis suis malum non reddit, sed magis pro 
" ipsis orat ; qui iites non concitat, sed discordes ad concor* 
** diam revocat, &c." Dach. Spicil. torn, v, p. 213. 
* Sermo Lupi episc. ap. Whil. p. 487. 



III.] MISREPRESENTED. 37 

Such was the doctrine taught in the monasteries. 
May it not be confidently asked, whether it be not 
the morality of the gospel ? Whether any purer 
lessons of morality can be cited ? and whether the 
institutions in which it was taught, and without 
which it might not have been taught, were not, 
with all the imperfections justly or unjustly im- 
puted to them, eminently useful to the commu- 
nity ? 

111. 4. 

Miracles performed by the Anglo-Saxon Missionaries, 
In this, and in many other parts of the work be- 
fore us, you treat the miracles, performed by mem- 
bers of the roman-catholic church, with contempt 
and ridicule. The present is not a place for a full 
discussion of this important topic : I shall, there- 
fore, only present you, — 1. With a short exposition 
of the roman-catholic doctrine upon it : — 2. With 
some observations suggested by the conflicting ar- 
guments of doctor Middleton, and his adversaries, 
in the controversy upon miracles, which took place 
between them towards the middle of the last cen- 
tury : — 3. And with some general observations on 
the credibility of the miracles, which are related to 
have been wrought in the roman-catholic church 
during the middle ages. 

1. It is known, that roman-catholics, relying 
with entire confidence on the promises of Christ, 
believe, that ike power of working miracles was 
given hy Christ to his churchy and that it nevei 

o 3 



38 MIRACLES [Letter 

has been, and never will he, withdrawn from her. 
Through the prophet Joel God announced to 
the Jews, that " in the iast days he would pour 

out his spirit on all flesh that " their sons 
*' and their daughters should prophecy that 

their young men should see visions, and their 

old men dream dreams." When St. Peter cited 
this prophecy to the Jews, assembled at the 
feast of Pentecost, he declared to them, that the 
promise contained in it was made to them, to 
" their children, and to all that were afar off* 
" whom the Lord God should call t." Christ, in 
his last sermon, after exhorting St. Philip to be- 
lieve in him as God, equal to his Father ; and 
after appealing to his works, as the testimony given 
by his Father to this truth, expressed himself in 
the following solemn terms Verily I verily! 
" I say unto you, he that belie veth in me, the works 
'/ that I do, these shall he do, and greater works 
" than these he shall also do When, just be^ 
fore his ascension into heaven, Christ took his last 
leave of his apostles, and gave them his last bless- 
ing, he mentioned to them the signs which should 
follow those who believed : "In my name," he 
said, " they shall cast out devils ; they shall speak 
" with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents j 
" and, if they eat any thing deadly, it shall not 

hurt them j they shall lay their hands on the 
" sick, and they shall be cured ||." 

Ghap. ii. 29, 30. t Acts, ii. 39. 

• J John, xiv. 12, 13, 11 Mark, xvi. 17, 18. 



III.] BY MISSIONARIES. 09 

Here roman-catholics confidently ask: — Did not 
Christ promise by these words, that miracles should 
be wrought in his church ? That they should 
be wrought without limitation of time ? That some 
of these should be greater than his own? 

To say that the promise failed- would be im- 
piety. Somewhere, therefore, miracles must have 
been uninterruptedly wrought. Now, the roman- 
catholic is the only church, which, from the first 
propagation of Christianity until the present time, 
has had a visible and uninterrupted existence : 
uninterrupted miracles, therefore, could only have 
existed in the roman-catholic church. They could 
not possibly have existed in any church, which 
separated from the see of Rome at the time of the 
Reformation ; for, to use an expression of Bossuet, 
in his controversy with M. Claude, " when the 
" church of the reformers first separated from the 
" one, the holy, the roman-catholic church, their 

church could not by their own confession enter 
" into communion with a single church in the 
" whole world." 

2. The general position, that a constant succes- 
sion of miracles in a church is a proof of the truth 
of its religious creed, seems to be universally 
admitted. It is," says doctor Middleton in 
his Free Enquiry*, " a maxim, which must be 
^* allowed by all christians, that whenever any 

sacred rite or religious institution becomes the 

^ 3d edition, p. i. xvi. 
D 4 



40 CONTROVERSY [Letter 

*' instrument of miracles, we ought to consider that 
" rite as confirmed by divine approbation." 

It necessarily follows, that if roman-catholics 
prove a constant succession of miracles in their 
church, they consequently establish the truth of her 
doctrine. 

Aware of this inference, the protesta'nt divines 
found it incumbent on them to contend, that at 
some period in the christian sera, there was a ces- 
sation of miracles in the christian church. Being re- 
quired to specify this agra, they answered that it was 
when the corruption of Christianity became general. 
They were then required to specify the period 
when this general corruption took place. Here a 
considerable disagreement was found among them* 
Some assigned it to the fourth, some to the fifth, 
some even to the sixth century ; but the generality 
assigned it to the conversion of the emperor 
Constantino. Then, according to their system, 
Christianity became the religion of the state ; and, 
being supported by the secular arm, the christians 
no longer put their trust in God, and a general 
corruption of Christianity ensued. From this time, 
therefore, the Almighty ceased to recognize their 
church, and withdrew from her the supernatural 
powers, with which, till then, He had invested her. 

Such is the account which protestant writers give 
of the supposed sera of the corruption of Christianity. 
It is evident, that whatever may be the period 
which they assign for it, there must be error in the 



III.] ON MIRACLES. 41 

assignment, if miracles were subsequently wrought 
in the catholic church, as it never can be supposed 
that the Almighty would work miracles in the 
support of a corrupted church. Now, the roman- 
catholics produce a regular chain of miracles, 
wrought in every subsequent age of Christianity. 
Then, as the protestants admit the existence of 
miracles, in the ages which preceded theaera assigned 
by them for the corruption of Christianity, it became 
incumbent upon them to disprove the miracles 
alleged by the roman- catholics to have been wrought 
in the subsequent ages ; and this they could only 
do, by showing that the evidence for them was 
not so strong as the evidence adduced in support 
of the miracles wrought in the preceding ages, and 
allowed and credited by themselves. 

Here doctor Middleton intervened. It is, by 
his account, impossible for protestants to show, that 
miracles ceased at any of the aeras assigned by 
them, as the catholics, in his judgment, can in- 
controvertibly demonstrate, that the sanctity, the 
talents, and the discernment of those, on whose 
testimony the miracles in the subsequent ages de- 
pended, were not inferior to the sanctity, the 
talents, and discernment of those whose testimony 
for the miracles of the preceding ages the pro- 
testants themselves accepted, and pronounced to 
be sufficient. " As far as the church historians 
" can illustrate or throw light upon any thing, 

there is not," says doctor Middleton*, a single 

* Inti. XV. XVI. 



42 CONTROVERSY [Letter 

" point in history, so constantly, explicity, and 
" unanimously affirmed by them all, as the con- 
" tinual succession of these powers, through all 
" ages, from the earliest father who mentions them, 
" down to the time of the Reformation ; which 
" same succession is still further deduced by per- 
" sons of the most eminent character for their 

probity, learning, and dignity in the Romish 

church to this very day. So that the only doubt 
" which can remain with us is, whether the church 
" historians are to be trusted or not ; for if any 
** credit be due to them in the present case, it 
" must reach either to all, or to none ; because the 
" reason for believing them, in any one age, will 
" be found to be of equal force in all, as far as it 
" depends on the characters of the persons attesting, 

or the nature of the things attested." 

Pursuing his argument, doctor Middleton con- 
fined the power of working miracles, to the apostolic 
age. According to his system, it was bestowed 
on the apostles, and during the lives of the apostles 
on others ; but it ceased entirely on the decease of 
all the apostles, and never more appeared in the 
christian world. After generally noticing the 
miracles of the six first ages, I see nothing," says 
this learned and acute writer*, *' which can stop 
" the progress from the sixth age down to the 
*^ present, from pope Gregory the Great to pope 
^' Clement the Twelfth ; for each succeeding age 
" will furnish miracles, and witnesses too of as 
* Inti, I. XXXII, xcvi. 



nr.] ON MIRACLES. 43 

" good credit as those of the sixth. Grant the 
" Romanist but a single age of miracles after the 

times of the apostles we shall be entangled in a 
" series of difficulties, whence we can never fairly 

extricate ourselves, unless we allow the same 
" powers also to the present age." 

Such was doctor Middleton's system, respecting 
the miracles wrought in the christian church. He 
supported it in the work, which we have mentioned, 
with great ability. It gave considerable alarm : 
an host of divines rose in arms again him ; and 
a controversial war ensued. The assailants dis- 
played learning and talent ; but, when doctor Mid- 
dleton asked the overwhelming question, — What 
greater right to credit does the testimony admit- 
ted by you possess, than the testimony which you 
reject ? it must be admitted that he received no 
satisfactory answer. 

On the other hand, when the adversaries of 
doctor Middleton turned upon him, and asked, — 
Why greater credit should be given to the writers 
of the apostolic age, than to the writers of the suc- 
ceeding ages ? this question was found to be equally 
overwhelming and the doctor could never be 
brought to give it a direct answer. If he answered 
it, in consistency with the opinions which he him- 
self avowed, and attempted to enforce against his 
adversaries, he must have said, that the apostolic 
and the succeeding writers were entitled to the 
same degree of credit. From this it would have 
followed, that, as he thought the succeeding writers 



44 CONTROVERSY [Letter 

entitled to no credit, neither did he think the apos- 
tolic writers entitled to any. This, it was evident, 
would sap the very foundations of Christianity. 
Aware of this, doctor Middleton always evaded the 
question. This did not escape the observation, 
either of his adversaries, or of the general observers 
of the controversy ; and it thus became almost an 
universal opinion, that his Free Enquiry " was 
virtually, and perhaps intentionally, an attack 
upon all miracles, and through them, on Christianity 
itself. 

" Doctor Middleton's undertaking,*' says Mr. 
Chalmers in his Biographical Dictionary, "justly 
" alarmed the clergy, and all friends to religion ; 
" since it was impossible to succeed, without taint- 
" ing, in some degree, the scripture miracles. They 
" thought, too, that even the canon of scripture 
" must not be a little affected, if the fathers, on 
*^ whose credit the authenticity of its books in some 
" measure depended, were so utterly despised." 

It is true that doctor Middleton might have 
answered, that the difference between the apostolic 
writers, so far at least as the case rested between 
the writers of the New Testament, and the writers 
in after-times, was, that the former were inspired ; 
and that all they related was, therefore, necessarily 
true. But this answer would only have removed 
the difficulty by a single step. In reply to it, 
the doctor's adversaries would have asked, — On 
what he considered the evidence of the inspira- 
tion of the New Testament, or even the evidence 



III.] ON MIRACLES. 45 

of the authenticity of a single copy of it to 
rest? — To the question, doctor Middleton must 
have answered, — on human testimony. The over- 
whelming question would then have immediately 
followed, —What right to credit does the testimony 
for it possess, upon your principles, that is not pos- 
sessed, in an equal degree, by the testimony in 
favour of the miracles of every age ? — in favour even 
of some which you so superciliously reject ? To 
,this question doctor Middleton could have made 
no reply. 

Such was the result of this celebrated controversy. 
It produced a great sensation, and made impres- 
sions which have not been obliterated. 

In general, roman-catholics kept aloof from it. 
They perceived how greatly it served their cause. 
They thought it clear, that, — when doctor Middle- 
ton proved, against his antagonists, that the evidence 
brought by them in support of the miracles, which 
they allowed was not greater than the evidence pro- 
duced for the miracles which they rejected, — he 
completely established the roman-catholic doctrine 
of the uninterrupted succession of miracles in their 
church : and that, on the other hand, — when the 
adversaries of doctor Middleton proved against him, 
that the inspiration of the New Testament, and 
even the authenticity of its text, could only be 
proved by testimony, — they completely established 
the roman-catholic doctrine of tradition. 

It does not appear from the Book of the 
Church," whether, in respect to the point under 



46 CONTROVERSY " [Letter 

consideration, we should class you with doctor Mid- 
dleton, or with doctor Middleton's antagonists. If 
with the former, we wish you to explain, in some 
future edition of your work, in what manner, with- 
out resorting to tradition, it can be proved that the 
sacred writings are inspired ; and, therefore, enti- 
tled to the superior credit which doctor Middleton 
claimed for them : — If with the latter, we wish to 
see your reasons for preferring the miracles, which 
preceded the period assigned by the antagonists 
of the doctor for the cessation of miracles, to those 
which followed that period. 

But,— while the roman-catholics assert, that it has 
pleased Almighty God to work in every age, from 
the first preaching of the gospel to the present 
time, many and incontestible miracles in favour of 
his church and her doctrines, they admit, without 
qualification, that no miracles, except those which 
are related in the Old or the New Testament, are 
articles of faith ; that a person may disbelieve every 
other miracle, and may even disbelieve the exist- ^ 
ence of the persons, through whose intercession 
they are related to have been wrought, without 
ceasing to be a roman-catholic. This is equally 
agreeable to religion and common sense ; for all 
miracles, which are not recorded in holy writ, de- 
pend on human reasoning. Now, human reasoning 
being always fallible, all miracles depending on it 
rest on fallible proof ; and, consequently, may be 
untrue. Hence the divines of the roman-catholic 
church never impose the belief of particular mira- 



Ill]/ ON MIRACLES. 47 

cles, either upon the body of the faithful or upon 
individuals ; they only recommend the belief of 
them. They never recommend the belief of any, the 
credibility of which does not appear to them to be 
supported by evidence of the highest nature ; and, 
while they contend that the evidence is of this de- 
scription, and cannot, therefore, be rationally dis- 
believed, they admit that it is still no more than 
human testimony, and therefore liable to error. 
Doctor Milner rejects*, in the wholesale, the mira- 
cles related in the " Golden Legend " of Jacobus 
de Voragine ; those related in the Speculum " 
of Vincentius Belluacensis ; and those related in 
the " Saints Lives " of the patrician Metaphiastes : 
no roman-catholic gives credit to those which rest 
on Surius, or Monbritius. Doctor Lingard f calls 
Osbert, the biographer of St. Dunstan, and the 
writer of his life, an injudicious biographer, whose 
" anile credulity collected and embellished every 
" fable." Doctor Lingard, also, while he asserts t 
that there are many miracles in the Anglo-Saxon 
times, which it would require no small ingenuity to 
disprove, and incredulity to discredit, admits that 
" there are also many which must shrink from the 
" frown of criticism ; some, which may have been 
*^ the effect of accident or imagination ; some, that 
are more calculated to excite the smile than the 
" wonder of the readers ; and some, which, on what- 

* End of Controversy, Letter xxiv. 

t Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, c. xii. n. 6. 

1^ Ibid. c. ix. 



48 CONTROVERSY [Letter 

" ever ground they were originally admitted, de- 

pend, at the present, on the distant testimony of 
" writers, not remarkable for sagacity or discrimi- 
" nation. It was their misfortune," says the same 
excellent writer, that the knowledge of these 
" writers of miracles was not equal to their piety. 

Of their censors, it may sometimes be said, that 

their piety was not equal to their knowledge." 

This exposition of the roman-catholic doctrine 
respecting miracles has been often given. May 
I not ask, if it be either just or generous to harass 
the present catholics with the weaknesses of the 
antient writers of their communion ; and to attempt 
to render their religion and themselves odious by 
these unceasing and offensive repetitions ? 

In a sermon,, preached before queen Elizabeth, 
doctor Jewell, ^' the learned, venerated, andautho- 
" rized organ of the protestant church/' as he is 
called by the bishop of St. David's, represented 
to her majesty, that " witches and sorcerers won- 

derfully increased that " her majesty's sub- 
" jects pined away until death ;" that " their 

colours faded, their flesh rottened, their speech 
" was removed, and their senses bereft." In con- 
sequence of this representation, her majesty and the 
lords spiritual and temporal, in parliament assem- 
bled, made witchcraft felony. Numbers suffered 
upon it in that and subsequent reigns. What would 
a protestant think of a roman-catholic who should 
now revile the church of England, on account 
of this sermon, and the act of parliament which 



III.] ON MIRACLES. 49 

followed it ; and should attempt to identify them 
with the actual doctrines of the established church? 
By parity of reason, may not a roman-catholic 
justly complain, when a protestant brings forward 
the miserable story of St. Dunstan pinching the 
devil's nose, and other tales of this sort ; and repre- 
sents them as forming part of the faith or doctrines 
of the catholic church? 

Surely it is time that this kind of contention 
should cease. If there must be controversy between 
catholics and protestants, let it always be the con- 
troversy of scholars and gentlemen : — such contro- 
versy as was waged between Laud and Fisher ; 
between Chillingworth and Knott : — such as we find 
in the elegant letters of father Scheffmacher ; and 
the learned treatise of doctor Isaac Barrow. Such, 
in fine, as we meet with in doctor Milner's " Letters 
" to a Prebendary," and in his " End of Contro- 

versy I have greatly availed of these in the 
letters which I now have the honour to address to 
you. I particularly recommend the perusal of 
them to you and every protestant, who sincerely 
wishes to be informed of our religious tenets, of 
the arguments by which we support them, and of 
the history of the English roman-catholics since 
the Reformation. 



E 



CONVERSION OF 



[Letter 



LETTER IV. 

CAUSES WHICH PROMOTED THE SUCCESS OF 
CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 

SIR, 

THIS is an important chapter. A roman- 
catholic will peruse with pleasure the ample tribute 
of commendation which you pay, in parts of it, 
to the conduct of the roman missionaries ; to the 
doctrine which they preached ; and to the manner 
in which they preached it. Still you are sometimes 
unjust to them. On these parts of the chapter I 
shall offer some observations : I shall attempt to 
show, — I. That the conduct of the missionaries was, 
under Providence, the chief cause of their success in 
preaching the gospel: — II. I shall notice an un- 
founded charge brought by you, in this chapter, 
against the Anglo-Saxon clergy: — -And III. exa- 
mine your assertion, that the faith of the Welch 
was purer than that taught by St. Augustine to the 
Anglo-Saxons. 

IV. 1. 

The Conduct of the Missionaries was, under Providence, 
the chief Cause of their Success. 

You ask, — why Christianity should have been 
established so early, and with such little struggle 
in England, seeing that its introduction into 
heathen countries has, in later centuries, been 
" found so exceedingly difficult, as at one time to be 
*^ generally considered hopeless, and almost impos- 
" sible, without a miracle ? " You assign for its 



IV.] THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 61 

early and quiet establishment among the Anglo- 
Saxons several natural causes. I coincide with you 
in opinion, that all the causes you mention were 
favourable to the introduction and propagation of 
Christianity in England. 

Several natural causes had, in like manner, been 
favourable to its introduction and propagation in the 
Roman world. All history shows, that the wisdom 
of Providence frequently uses the circumstances of 
mankind as instruments for its purposes ; and thus 
frequently accomplishes its designs, partially at least, 
by human means. 

But was not the success of the Anglo-Saxon 
apostles principally owing, under Providence, to 
their correspondence with the graces and gifts, 
which it pleased the Almighty to bestow upon them ? 
None of the circumstances mentioned by you to 
have been favourable to the introduction and ex- 
tension of the gospel among the Anglo-Saxons, 
existed in some of the countries in which it was 
preached by St. Augustine's disciples ; yet the 
success of the disciples was every where equal to 
the success of their Master. Should it not, there- 
fore, be chiefly attributed to their having possessed 
the same virtues ? 

In how many portions of the habitable globe 
have roman-catholic missions, even under the most 
discouraging circumstances, been attended with 
equal success ? In opposition to the ruling powers, 
and often under severe persecutions, countless con- 
versions have been made by roman-catholic mis- 



52 ANGLO-SAXON AND [Letter 

sionaries in Madeira, Cochin-china, Tonquin, the 
empire of China, the peninsula of Corea ; among 
the Hurons, Miamis, Illinois, and other tribes of 
North America; among the savages of Paraguay, 
Uraguay and Panama; among the wild Moxos, 
Chiquits and Canizians. All these countries have 
been watered with the blood of roman-catholic mis- 
sionaries; and, to use the well-known expression of 
Tertullian, " their blood became the seed of the 
church." 

IV, 2. 

Unfounded Charge brought in this Chapter against the 
Anglo-Saxon Clergy. 

Towards the middle of this chapter*^, you 
broadly describe the missionaries, as " politic in 

contrivance ; little scrupulous concerning the 
" measures which they employed, because they 

were persuaded that any measures were justifiable, 
" if they conduced to bring about the good end 

which was their aim.'' 

You must admit, that the principle which you 
impute in this place to the Anglo-Saxon mission- 
aries is most nefarious, and fraught with the worst 
consequences. You must also admit, that a charge 
of this nature, when it is brought against an indi- 
vidual, can only be proved by producing either his 
own acknowledgment of it, or else such facts as 
establish it by just inference ; and that, when it is 



* Vol. 1, p. 55, 56. 



IV.] WELCH CLERGY. 53 

brought against a body of men, it can only be 
proved by producing a multiplicity of such acknow- 
ledgments, or a multiplicity of such facts. But in 
the present case, where are these acknowledgments? 
Where are these facts ? 

IV. 3. 

Alleged purer Faith of the Welch. 

" The Saxons," you inform us, received chris- 
" tianity with its latest ceremonials, additions, and 
" doctrinal corruptions. The Welch were possessed 
" of a purer faith." 

But can the slightest evidence of their purer 
faith be produced? Gildas, who was himself a 
Welchman, and a contemporary with St. Augustine, 
censures, in the strongest terms, the morals of the 
clergy of Wales, and their neglect of clerical duty. 
Is it then likely, that their faith should have been 
purer than that of St. Augustine? Add to this, 
that one of St. Augustine's demands of the Welch 
was, that they should join him, and his companions, 
in preaching the word of God to the pagans* : 
Would he have made this demand if there had not 
been the strictest unity of faith between himself 
and the clergy of Wales ? His only other demands 
were, that they should adopt the Roman ritual in 
the administration of baptism ; observe the com- 
putation of Easter, used in every other part of 
Christendom 5 and submit to the metropolitan juris- 

* Doctor Lingard's Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 
p. 2: 

E 3 



54 WELCH CLERGY. [Letter IV. 

diction over them, which the pops had conferred 
upon him. All the demands of St. Augustine were 
refused. From this you infer, that their religious 
creed differed from that of the Roman see, and 
and give to their's a decided preference. I beg 
leave to observe, that the difference between the 
baptismal rite observed by the Welch, and the 
rite which St. Augustine required them to observe, 
was a mere difference in form, not a difference 
in substance ; that the difference between them in 
the computation of Easter, respected an observance 
in which no point of faith was implicated 5 and 
that their refusal to acknowledge St. Augustine for 
their archbishop and metropolitan, was no greater 
assertion of the independence of their church, on 
an intermediate prelate, than in every aera of Chris- 
tianity, and in every part of the christian world, 
roman-catholic prelates of the fairest fame, recog- 
nized by the see of Rome to be in communion 
with her, and unequivocally acknowledging her 
supremacy, have strenuously asserted against her 
in points of local discipline. It should be added, 
that the Welch, notwithstanding these differences, 
were always in communion with the see of Rome ; 
and, at no very distatit period, conformed, in 
all the points which have been mentioned, to the 
general discipline of the roman-catholic church. 



THE DANES. 



65 



LETTER V. 

RELIGION OF THE DANES — THEIR CONVERSION. 
SIR, 

IN this chapter you give an account of the my- 
thology of the Scandinavian nations. It gives me 
pleasure to mention it with unqualified praise j and 
to add, that having many years ago paid particular 
attention to this subject, and presented the result to 
the public % I now find, with pleasure, that it coin- 
cides altogether with that which the public actually 
receive from your much- abler pen. 

In this chapter, the piracy of the Danes is pro- 
perly noticed. Mr. Sharon Turner's account of 
the sea-kings, and of Vitingr of the North, in his 
History of the Anglo-Saxons t> is singularly in- 
teresting. 

I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of transcrib- 
ing the account which, in the chapter now before 
me, you give of the blessings diffused over all 
Scandinavia, by the propagation of Christianity in 
those extensive regions. " By the policy, the 

steady system of the popes, the admirable zeal 
" of the Benedictines, and by the blessing of God, 
" which crowned all, the whole of the Scandina- 
" vian nations were converted, about the time of 
" the Norman Conquest j and thus an end was 

* Horae Biblicae, part 2. The Edda. 
t Page 68. ~ ^ 

£ 4 



5G THE DANES. [Letter V. 

*' put to those religions which made war their princi- 
*' pie, and, sanctifying the most atrocious and cursed 
" actions, had the misery of mankind for their end." 
In a former page * you remark, that " to the ser- 
" vile part of the community the gospel was indeed 
" tidings of great joy ; frequently they were eman- 
" cipated, either in the first fervor of the owner's 
" conversion, or as an act of atonement, and meri- 
" torious charity, at death." For these expres- 
sions, I most sincerely thank you: but I must 
entreat you to keep in mind, that the conversions 
you speak of, and which you describe to have been 
attended with so many spiritual and so many tem- 
poral blessings, were conversions effected by roman- 
catholic missionaries to the roman-catholic faith. — 
Can such a faith deserve a harsh word ? 



* Vol. 1, book 2, c. 2, p 203. 



DUNSTAN. 57 



LETTER VI. 
THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH — ST. DUNSTAN. 
SIR, 

AN attentive perusal of what doctor Lingard 
has written in his Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon 
Church, and of what the same author, and Mr. 
Sharon Turner, have said in their respective histo- 
ries of England, — and an examination of all the 
authorities adduced by them, — have convinced me, 
that St. Dunstan is entitled to the praise of probity, 
talent, and true religion. Such was the opinion of 
every writer, whose works have reached us, from the 
time in which St. Dunstan lived, till the sera of the 
Reformation. Then, without the discovery of a 
single new fact, that could justify a change of opinion, 
St. Dunstan became an object of the most contu- 
melious abuse ; and, since that time, it has been 
always on the increase. You now describe him as a 
perfect monster: — differing from you in this regard, 
I request your particular attention to this letter, 
I shall mention, — l.The early years of St. Dunstan : 
— II. His conduct towards king Edwin : — III. His 
conduct towards king Edgar : — IV. His enforcing 
the celibacy of the clergy : — V. His introduction of 
the Benedictine monks in the room of the secular 
canons : — And VI. His miracles. 



5<8 



DUNSTAN. 



[Letter 



VI. 1. 

Early Years of St. Dunstan, 

His family was noble. All historians agree, that 
his education was suitable to his birth ; that his 
proficiency, both in sacred and profane literature, 
was great ; that he was eminently skilled in the 
elegant arts of music, painting, engraving, and 
working in metals ; and that his knowledge, and 
exemplary conduct, made him universally re- 
spected and beloved, and destined him, in public 
opinion, to the highest dignities, and most import- 
ant employments. While he was thus rapidly ad. 
vancing to distinction, he fell into disgrace at 
court, and was visited by a long illness. In these 
serious hours, he determined to embrace a religious 
life 5 and, sometime after his recovery, received 
the order of priesthood, and with it the monastic 
habit. He was attached to the parish church of 
Glastonbury ; still he lived in retirement, and 
devoted, in an obscure and humble cell, all the 
time which his parochial duties left at his dis- 
posal, to prayer and penitential austerities. He 
distributed his own fortune, and a considerable 
property which had been bequeathed to him, 
between his church and the poor. His virtues 
attracted the attention of Edmund, his sovereign : 
he conferred on him the royal palace and 
manor of Glastonbury, and appointed him abbot 
of the adjoining convent of Benedictine monks. 



VI.] DUNSTAN. 59 

Edred, the brother and successor of Edmund, 
showed him the same favour. Edred was suc- 
ceeded by Edwin, a dissolute youth, then in his 
fourteenth year. 

Such was the early life of Dunstan. Modern 
writers profess to discover in it strong indications 
of hypocrisy, turbulence, and ambition. To me, 
these are invisible, unless it be certain that a per- 
son, who retires in his youth from the dignities 
and gaudes of the world, spends many years in pri- 
vacy and humble occupations, and afterwards attains 
great dignities in the church, must necessarily 
hence have been hypocritical, turbulent, and ambi- 
tious in his youth. 

VI. 2. 

The Conduct of St. DunMan towards King Edwin. 

At the time of which we are how writing, two 
troinen, Ethelgiva, and Elgiva her daughter, fre- 
quented the monarch's court. *' The former,'* 
says an antient writer, " was of high rank, but 
" silly. She followed the king every where, and 
" endeavoured, by familiar and shameful bland- 
" ishments, to induce him to unite himself to 

her, or to her daughter, by the tie of marriage, 
" Shameful to relate, each submitted to the mo- 
" iiarch's will." Decency compels us to suppress 
the rest of the scandalous narrative. On the day 
of his coronation, the monarch, the clergy, and 
the nobility, assembled, as was customary on this 



60 DUNSTAN. [Letter 

occasion, at a sumptuous feast. In the midst of 
some serious discourse, the monarch suddenly rose 
from the table, and hurried into an adjoining apart- 
ment. There, Ethel giva and Elgiva awaited him. 
The assembled ecclesiastics and nobles felt them- 
selves insulted ; they expressed their indignation 
by a general murmur ; and unanimously com- 
manded Dunstan and Kinsey, a prelate of royal 
blood, to repair to the apartment, and bring back 
the monarch, willing or unwilling, to his seat, 
Kinsey and Dunstan found the sovereign in a 
situation which it would be offensive to our readers 
to describe, and his royal crown on the floor. The 
monarch was unwilling to quit the scene of infamy. 
Dunstan strongly represented to him the conse- 
quences of his conduct ; dragged him from the em- 
braces of the women ; placed the crown upon his 
head ; and returned with him to the banquet 
It is surprising that the conduct of Dunstan, on 
this occasion, should be the subject of modern 
blame. The monarch had outraged decency ; the 
clergy and nobles were irritated ; and the worst 
consequences might have followed. Dunstan 
brought back the unwise youth to the assembly,^ 
and thus stifled the discontent. 

But his conduct was resented, both by the king 
and Ethelgiva. He was banished from the court, 
confined to his monastery, and threatened with 
personal violence. Then, with the permission of 



* See Lingard's Hist. Vol. I. Note ( A), 2. 543. 



VI.] DUNSTAN. 61 

the earl of Flanders, he retired to the monastery 
of St. Peter at Ghent ; but Edwin and Ethel- 
giva pursued their vengeance against him. His 
two abbeys of Glastonbury and Abingdon were 
dissolved, and the monks expelled from them. 
Edwin continued his connexions with Ethelgiva : 
the Wittenagemot, which was both the supreme 
council, and the supreme judicial tribunal of the 
nation, took cognizance of it, and threatened 
Ethelgiva with ignominious punishment, if she 
should persist in her scandalous conduct. She 
paid no attention to their representations, and the 
scandal continued. By the direction of the Wit- 
tenagemot, she was branded with a hot iron, and 
conveyed out of the kingdom. The public discon- 
tent increased : all the provinces on the north of 
the Humber revolted, and transferred their alle- 
giance to Edgar, the brother of Edwin. 

A civil war ensued : Ethelgiva returned from her 
banishment, but was seized and murdered by a party 
of the insurgent soldiers. To put an end to the 
distraction of the nation, the Wittenagemot inter- 
fered, and divided the kingdom between the two 
brothers. On the death of Edwin, which happened 
soon after this event, Edgar became the sole pos- 
sessor of the Anglo-Saxon throne. Modern his- 
torians have worked the misfortunes of Ethelgiva 
and Elgiva into a very tragic tale, and described 
Dunstan as the author of their calamities ; but 
must not all who read doctor Lingard's account of 



62 DUNSTAN. [Letter 

them, and examine his authorities, acknowledge 
that the tale is considerably embellished, and wholly 
acquit Dunstan of having acted any part in it ? 
During the whole of these proceedings, Dunstan 
was in Flanders, 

VL 3. 

The Conduct of St. Dunstan towards King Edgar, 

From the time of his being sent into banish- 
ment, till the death of Edwin, Dunstan remained 
abroad. One of the earliest acts of king Edgar, 
after the death of his brother, was to recal Dun- 
stan, After his return, he was successively pro- 
moted to the bishoprics of Worcester and London, 
and to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. 

Edgar uniformly displayed great talents for 
government ; but he too often yielded to his pas- 
sions. It is a strong argument in favour of the 
historical fidelity of the monastic writers, that, al- 
though Edgar was one of their greatest benefactors, 
all of them have represented his vices and follies 
in the strongest colours. On one occasion Edgar 
violated, in a convent, a lady of noble birth, who 
resided among the nuns. After the first ferment 
of his passion had subsided, Dunstan waited on the 
monarch, and pointed out to him the enormity of 
his crime : Edgar submitted both to the prelate's 
admonitions, and to the penance imposed by him. 
The prelate enjoined him to abstain, during ten 



VI.] DUNSTAN. 63 

years, from wearing his crown ; and to observe 
a rigorous fast during two days in every week ; to 
distribute large alms among the poor ; to publish 
a code of laws for the more impartial administration 
of justice ; and to transmit, at his own expense, 
to the different counties of the Anglo-Saxon 
monarchy, copies of the holy scriptures. These 
salutary severities restored the monarch to a sense 
of his duty, and to the esteem of his people. It 
seems difficult to contend with success, that the 
conduct of Dunstan, on this occasion, is not enti- 
tled to unqualified commendation. 

VI. 4. 

St. Dunstan's Regulations f 07' the Celibacy of the 
Clergy. 

One of the first measures adopted by St. Dun- 
stan, to effect a reformation of the discipline of the 
Anglo-Saxon church, was to restore the celibacy of 
the clergy. 

The roman-catholic church considers the mar- 
ried state to be honourable ; but, in conformity to 
the doctrine repeatedly announced by Christ and 
his apostles, she prefers to it the state of virginity. 
She also considers, that many things in the married 
state are impediments to the perfect discharge of 
the duties of the sacred ministry ; and has, there- 
fore, enjoined, that the clergy should observe con- 
tinence. It is always better to cite one than many 
authorities : I beg leave, therefore, to refer ypu, 



64 DUNSTAN. [Letter 

and all my readers who wish for complete informa- 
tion on this subject, to the dissertation upon it, 
which doctor Milner has inserted in his excellent 

History of Winchester." I believe that, if they 
peruse it impartially, they will think it abundantly 
demonstrates, that bishops, priests and deacons were 
obliged, from the very infancy of the church, to 
observe the law of continency ; and that, towards 
the end of the sixth century, this law was intro- 
duced, with Christianity itself, by St. Augustine 
and his companions, among our Anglo-Saxon an- 
cestors. How can those who contest this fact get 
over, either the unanimous resolution of the fathers 
assembled at the second council of Carthage, in 
favour of this article of catholic discipline ? Or 
their unanimous testimony, that it was taught by 
the apostles ? The clergy of the established church 
of England were first allowed to marry by an act 
passed in the second year of the reign of Edward VI. 
It is not a little remarkable, that the preamble to 
this very act states, " that it would be better for the 
" estimation of priests, and also for the administra- 

tion of the gospel, for them to live chaste." 
Queen Elizabeth's dislike of the marriages of priests 
is known to you, and every person of learning. 
They, therefore, who express themselves harshly 
upon this doctrine, should a little consider, that 
the catholic doctrine, which they now so strongly 
reprobate, was favoured by many, who are actual 
objects of their incessant praise. 

But although the dissertation, to which we have 



VI.] DUNSTAN. m 

referred, should fail to prove to our readers the 
very high antiquity, or the universal prevalence 
vs^hich it assigns to the law for the celibacy of the 
clergy, can any dispassionate person blame St. 
Dunstan for enforcing it, if he considers the great 
length of time during which it has been not only 
approved, but thought an essential point of christian 
discipline in every age, and in every country, by 
persons of distinguished character j and that, before 
the doctrines of the reformation were propagated, 
neither the doctrine itself, nor the manner in which 
it was established, was ever a subject even of the 
slightest obloquy? Generally speaking, the cha- 
racters of eminent persons should be estimated, not 
by the maxims of another age, but by the maxims 
of their own ; and, where their conduct cannot be 
wholly approved of, great indulgence should be 
shown to it, when it appears to have been approved 
by the good and the wise of their own time. 

VI. 5. 

St. Dunstan's Substitution of the Benedictine Monks 
to the Secular Canons. 

You, and other protestant writers, represent this 
as a deed of extreme injustice ; as a crafty design 
to increase the power of the sovereign pontiff, by 
placing the whole ecclesiastical economy of the 
kingdom in the hands of the regulars, a body of 
ecclesiastics pre-eminently devoted to the pontiff, 
and absolutely subject to his control. 

Archbishop Parker and tjhose, who join him in 

F 



GO DUNSTAN. [Letter 

this representation, describe the secular clergy of 
these times as honourable men, respectable ministers 
of the church, and guilty of no crime, but that of 
living piously in legitimate marriage. The de- 
scription given of them by their contemporaries, 
and by the writers in the period which immediately 
followed it, is very different. You yourself repre- 
sent the clergy of Dunstan's age as grossly 

ignorant, and partaking of the coarse dissolute 

manners of their countrymen." After this con- 
cession, supported as it is by the concurrent testi- 
mony which we have mentioned, there is strong 
reason to suppose that the corruption, complained 
of, could only be removed by strong measures. 
The substitution of the Benedictine monks to the 
secular canons was certainly a measure of this 
description. It met with great opposition : two 
councils were held upon it. Dunstan,'' — you 
intimate, — " tooh care that the third, which was 

held at Calne, should be decisive. The king was 
^' kept away, on account of his youth, though he 
^' had been present at the former meetings. Beor- 

nelm, a Scottish bishop, pleaded the cause of the 
" clergy with great ability ; alleging scripture in 
" their behalf, and custom ; and arguing upon the 
'* morality and reason of the case, against the celi- 
" bacy, to which by these new laws they were to be 

compelled. His speech produced a great effect ; 
*' and Dunstan did not attempt to answer it : he 

had laid aside," says his biographer, all his 
" means but prayer. You endeavour," said he, 



VI.] DUNSTAN. 67 

" to overcome me, who am now growing old, and 
disposed to silence rather than contention. 1 con- 
^' fess that I am mi willing to be overcome ; and 
" I commit the cause of the church to Christ him- 
" self, as judge. No sooner had these words been 
spoken, than the beams and rafters gave way ; 
that part of the floor, on which the clergy and 
their friends were arranged, fell with them ; many 
were killed in the fall, and others grievously hurt ; 
but the part where Dunstan and his friends had 
*^ taken their seats remained firm." 

A more atrocious crime than the charge which you 
thus bring against Dunstan cannot be imagined. 
Now every canon of history, even the common duty 
of charity, requires that such an imputation should 
not be brought without strong evidence. The 
slightest evidence neither has been, nor can be pro- 
duced, for its support That a council was held at 
Calne ; that, during its sitting, the floor fell in ; 
that the ecclesiastics, the nobles, and the other 
members who attended it, were cast into the ruin ; 
that several lost their lives, or were materially in- 
jured; and that Dunstan remained unhurt by 
standing on a beam, are the only circumstances 
which history has transmitted to us. Of the dia- 
bolical contrivance of the tragedy by Dunstan, no 
proof whatever has been suggested. 

Nothing can be more unfavourable to the memory 
of Dunstan than your account of him. I appre- 
hend that the readers of the preceding pages, and 
still more those, who have perused doctor Lingard's 
account of him, in his Antiquities of the Anglo- 

F 2 



68 DUNSTAN. [Letter 

Saxon Church, and in his History of England, par- 
ticularly if they have consulted the authorities cited 
by him, in the last of these works, have come to a 
very different conclusion, and consider St. Dunstan 
as an ornament to his religion and his country. 

VI. 6. 

The Miracles of St. Dunstan. 

You conclude the present chapter with an account 
of the miracles at the death of Dunstan." You 
thus express yourself upon them : Whether the 
" miracles at the death of St. Dunstan were ac- 
tually performed by the monks, or only averred 
by them as having been wrought, either in their 
" own sight, or in that of their predecessors, there 
" is the same fraudulent purpose, the same audacity 
of imposture, and the same irrefragable proofs 
of that system of deceit, which the romish church 
carried on every where till the time of the Re- 
" formation, and still pursues, wherever it retains 
" its temporal power or influence.*' 

This is a most serious charge : — In reply to it, 
I beg leave to refer you to what I have already said 
on the miracles performed in the roman-catholic 
church. I must add, that the period in which the 
miracles, attributed to Dunstan, were performed, 
was the darkest period in the roman-catholic history. 
The nation was then suffering grievously from the 
effects of the Danish ravages. The demolition of 
monasteries ; the slaughter of their unoffending in- 
mates, who were the teachers and scholars of the 



VL] DUN STAN. 69 

times ; the consequential destruction of books, and 
of all public and private memorials of literature 
and art, " had occasioned," to use your own words, 
" the total loss of learning in the Anglo-Saxon 
" church." 

But the gospel of the Anglo-Saxons still re- 
mained, and was still read. It informed them of 
the miracles wrought by Christ ; and of his pro- 
mises, that, until the end of time, his disciples 
should perform similar miracles, and even greater : 
and they knew that the promises of Christ could 
not fail. Besides,— as doctor Lingard justly ob- 
serves, *^Man is taught by human nature to attri- 
" bute any event to a particular cause ; and when 
an occurrence cannot be explained by the known 
" laws of the universe, it is assigned, by the illite- 
** rate in every age, and in every religion, to the 
operation of an invisible agent. This principle 
was not extirpated ; it was improved by the know- 
" ledge of the gospel. From the doctrine of a super- 
** intendant Providence, the Saxon converts were 
" led to conclude, that God would often inter- 
" fere in human concerns. To Him they ascribed 
" every unforeseen and unnatural event ; and either 
" trusted in His bounty for visible protection from 
" misfortune, or feared from His justice that ven- 
" geance which punishes guilt before the general 
day of retribution. Men, impressed with this 
notion, would rather expect the appearance of 
miraculous events. On many occasions, they 
would be the dupes of their own credulity ; and," 
(particularly as they had the Divine promises, men- 

F 3 



70 DUNSTAN. [Letter 

tioned by us, in full view), ascribe to the bene- 
" ficence of the Deity, and the intercession of their 
" patrons, those cures which might have been 
" effected by nature, or the power of the imagi- 
" nation." Let us add, that, in this temper of 
mind, it was likely that sometimes, like the North- 
men, gifted with second sight, they would see what 
they did not see ; and hear what they did not hear. 

Do not these observations solve the whole dif- 
ficulty? Do they not account for the abundance 
of miraculous relations, in the time of which we are 
writing ? Do they not render it unnecessary, — we 
had almost said inexcusable, — to account for them 
by imputing fraud, imposture or systematical deceit, 
as is done by you, to the persons concerned in them ? 

If there was a man," says a writer not unknown 
to you*, who could truly be called venerable, it is 
"he to whom that appellation is constantly paid, 
" Bede, whose life was past in instructing his own 

generation, and in preparing records for posterity." 
Yet, on the relations of the venerable Bede, does 
the truth of a great portion of the Anglo-Saxon 
miracles depend. In the present enlightened age, 
does not our own country abound with superstitions? 
Inquire of the village beadles and the village dames. 
Does a week pass without an advertisement in more 
than one of our newspapers of a child's caul ? Is 
this surpassed by any Saxon superstition? You 
yourself have recorded the miraculous incidents in 
the life of John Wesley. 

I beg leave to submit the following remark to 

* Quarterly Review for the month of December 1811. 



VI.] DUNSTAN. 71 

your consideration. While you so learnedly, and 
so eloquently, bring forward in " the Book of the 
" Church," so much to the supposed discredit of 
the Anglo-Saxon church, should you not have as- 
signed a just proportion, to what you yourself allow, 
to have been eminently praiseworthy and venerable ? 
Should you not have bestowed some pages on the 
edifying holiness of St. Neot ; the monastic sanctity 
and extensive learning of Bredfirth, the monk of 
Ramsay ; the extensive learning of Bede ; and the 
royal virtues and piety of Alfred ? 

On themes like these, how much did justice call 
on you to dwell ! But how little do you say upon 
them ! 

Permit me, before I close this letter, to notice a 
great, but I am sure an unintentional misrepresen- 
tation contained in your present chapter*. You 
eulogize the primate Theodore, for prohibiting di- 
vorce for any other cause than that which is allowed 
by the gospel. Here you evidently allude to the 
council held at Hereford in 673, at which Theo- 
dore presided f. It does not prohibit divorce ; but 
enjoins, that " no one should forsake his wife, 
*^ unless, as the gospel teaches, for fornication ; 
" and that, if any one should have expelled his wife, 
" joined to him in lawful matrimony, he should 
" marry no other, but remain as he was, or be 
" reconciled to her." 

* Page 84. 

t Wilk. Cone. vol. 1, p. 41. 

¥ 4 



72 



MONASTIC 



[Letter 



LETTER Vn. 

CHARGES AGAINST THE MONKS OF WITHHOLDING 
KNOWLEDGE, AND OF A DISPOSITION TO 

IMMODERATE SEVERITY. INVESTITURES. 

ST. ANSELM. 

SIR, 

IN this letter I shall consider the principal 
charges which you bring against the roman-catholic 
church, in the seventh chapter of your work. What 
respects the claim of the popes to temporal power, 
I shall make the subject of a future letter. 

VII . 

Charges against the Monks of withholding Knowledge, and 
of a Disposition to immoderate Severity/, 

You begin this chapter by intimating, that, " if 
St. Dunstan had been succeeded by similar talents 
and temper, and England had remained undis- 
" turbed by invasions, the priesthood might have 
" obtained as complete an ascendancy as in antient 
Egypt, or in Tibet, founded upon deceit, and 
upheld by uncommunicated knowledge, and im- 
" moderate severity.^' 

I must attribute these expressions to that hurry 
of composition, which sometimes leads even the 
ablest writers into inaccuracy. If, for a moment, 
you had looked into the stores of your own mind, — 



VII.] INSTITUTIONS. 73 

and ampler stores few possess, — you would have 
seen, that, in the middle ages, pope succeeded pope, 
with talents and temper similar to Dunstan's, yet, 
that, throughout the whole of this period, the 
eternal city, so far from being subjected to any 
Egyptiac or Tibetian ascendancy of priesthood, was 
the most free, and the most enlightened portion 
of Christendom. 

But, in your account of monkish literature and 
government, how could the words, " uncommuni- 
" cated knowledge and immoderate severity," have 
fallen from your pen ? Were not monasteries the 
only schools ? Was not knowledge most liberally 
communicated in them ? * 

As to your charge against the monks, of immo- 

derate severity," I must observe, that the passage 
which I have just cited from your work, is the first 
in which I have found this charge, or any thing 
like it made or insinuated ; and that, after seriously 
revolving all I have read on monastic transactions, 
I cannot bring to my recollection even a single fact 
which supports it. To the general mildness of their 
government, M. Mallet, a celebrated protestant 
historian^, bears strong testimony. " The monks,'* 
he says, " softened by their instructions the fero- 
" cious manners of the people, and opposed their 

credit to the despotism of tke nobility, who knew 
" no other occupation than war, and grievously 

* Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish and Scottish 
Catholics, c. xvi. s. 2. 

t Histoire des Suisses ou Helvetiens, tome 1, p. 105. 



74 MONASTIC LEARNING. [Letter 

" oppressed their neighbours : on this account, the 
" government of the monks was preferred to their' s. 
" The people sought them for judges ; it was an 
" usual saying, that it was better to be governed 
" by a bishop's crosier, than a monarch's sceptre'' 
— I wish you to consider this passage ; and, what is 
more important, to reflect, what your own exten- 
sive reading must suggest to you lapon the subject. 
Surely you will then think that there is no founda- 
tion for your charge. Have I not brought, in my 
" Historical Memoirs," ample testimony to the 
services rendered by the monks to education and 
literature ? 

One reflection permit me to suggest to you. No 
one knows better than yourself the impediments 
which existed, in the middle ages, to the expansion 
of genius, and the acquisition of knowledge. Sup- 
posing thai you had lived in that period, with all the 
mental endowments which you have received from 
nature, is it quite certain that you would have pos- 
sessed a better or purer religion ; more literary merit, 
or greater consistency, than the best men or best 
writers of those times? That you would have, ex- 
celled Anselm, in holiness; Bede, in agiography; 
the author of the Alexandreis, — (to whom we owe 
the celebrated line, 

" Incidis in Scyllam,^ cupiens evitare Charybdim,") 

in poetry ; Thoma« Aquinas, in theology ; Mat- 
thew Paris, or Matthew of Westminster, in his- 
tory; or Roger Bucon, in philosophy?— Respect 



VII.] INVESTITURES. 75 

yourself then in those, whom you might have re- 
sembled, if you had lived in their inauspicious ages ; 
and show that blindness to their faults, and that 
kindness to their virtues, to which, if you had lived 
in their times, you would have been entitled from 
ours. Without their preservation of the language 
and writings of Greece and Rome, and, (what is 
of greater consequence), without their transmission 
to you of the sacred writings, which contain the 
sacred word of God, you would not have been what 
you are. Which is it most fitting they should 
receive from you, — gratitude or sarcasms ? 

VII. 2. 

Investitures. 

In considering the unhappy contests in the 
middle ages, between the popes and the sovereigns, 
on the subject of investitures, we shall find ample 
ground for repelling the undistinguishing and un- 
qualified censure, which the conduct of the former 
has received from modern writers. 

It gives me pleasure to find you are not to be 
classed among these. — In the chapter under con- 
sideration, you often do justice to the pope: some 
things however in it call for observation. 

You are aware, that, in the early ages of the 
church, bishops were elected at a congregation of 
the clergy and laity of the diocese; that one, or 
more, of the neighbouring bishops presided at the 
election ; that the whole congregation joined in it ; 
that the bishop consecrated; that, from the reign 



76 INVESTITURES. [Letter 

of Constantine the Great, the body of the people 
began to be wholly excluded ; that the bishops and 
clergy retained their influence ; that it insensibly 
declined, so that the monarchs usurped to them- 
selves the exclusive rights of nominating to vacant 
sees; that this was very injurious to the interests 
of religion, as the motives of their nomination were 
seldom pure ; that Charlemagne, and his succes- 
sors, endowed the bishoprics with ample territorial 
possessions ; and that, while they were vacant, the 
monarchs claimed a right to receive the profits of 
them for their benefit, and on this account fre- 
quently delayed to fill them up. It appears from 
the records of the Exchequer, that Henry I. of 
England, in the sixteenth year of his reign, had in 
his hands one archbishopric, five bishoprics, and 
three abbeys ; in the nineteenth, one archbishopric, 
five bishoprics, and six abbeys; and, in the thirty- 
first, one archbishopric, six bishoprics, and seven 
abbeys ^. You must be sensible that this was an 
intolerable grievance ; but it did not rest here : The 
monarchs often sold their right of nomination to 
the vacant sees ; and thus, to use your own words, 
" simony became the characteristic sin of the age." 

When the vacancy was immoderately protracted, 
the popes often threatened to appoint to the see, 
without waiting for the king's nomination ; and 
sometimes carried their threats into execution. To 
prevent it, the monarchs required, that, on the death 
or removal of every bishop, his ring and crosier 

* Lingard, vol. 2, p. 65; he cites Madox, 209 — 212. 



VII.] INVESTITURES. 77 

should be transmitted to him. On the appointment 
of the bishop's successor, the monarch delivered the 
emblems to him. The bishops did homage and 
fealty; and then placed the ring and crosier in the 
hands of the metropolitan, and received them back 
from him. 

In this ceremonial, three things gave offence to 
the popes : i st, they contended, that the monarch's 
nomination to the vacant see was an usurpation of 
the rights of the clergy, to whom alone, both by 
the constitution of the church, and the length of 
usage, it justly belonged : 2dly, that the delivery 
of the ring and crosier, — the acknowledged em- 
blems of episcopal jurisdiction, — was a spiritual 
ceremony, which it was a sacrilege in a layman to 
perform ; that even, if this could be explained away, 
it facilitated the simoniacal traffic of benefices : and, 
3dly, that ecclesiastics, on account of their sacred 
character, ought to be exempted from doing homage 
and fealty, — or, at least, from the obligation of per- 
sonal service in war, which was attached to them. 

Permit me to ask, if the popes were not founded 
in all these objections, that only excepted which 
sought, on account of their supposed sanctity of 
character, to exempt the clergy from homage and 
fealty ? So much was this the case, that in every 
state in Europe the contest was settled, by allowing 
the greater part of the papal claims. The right of 
electing the bishops was appropriated and con- 
firmed to the clergy. It was provided, that the 



78 ANSELM. [Letter 

bishops should be invested with their temporalties, 
by deHvering the sceptre; and that personal mili- 
tary service should not be required from them. 

Thus we find, that, on the merits, — you must 
excuse a lawyer using this word, — the popes were 
right on most points of the case ; and that their 
main object in asserting their claims was generally 
commendable. So far as they resorted to temporal 
means for establishing them, then they were com^ 
pletely wrong. So far as they resorted to spiritual 
means, they acted within their proper sphere. But, 
in the use of these means, were they always right ? 

Where much is done," says doctor Johnson, 
" something wrong will always be found.'' 

You present us with an homely likeness of St. 
Anselm. You cannot call in question his piety, 
his zeal, his disinterestedness, the beauty of his 
genius, his firmness, or his learning. You acknow- 
ledge that a surprising revival of literature had been 
effected by him, and Lanfranc his immediate pre- 
decessor. You blame him, however, for the part 
which he took in the dispute on investitures. But, 
according to the principles universally received in 
his time, was he not always in the right ? and even, 
according to the received opinions of our times, was 
he much in the wrong ? You do not sufficiently 
notice, that the dispute between him and the king 
turned on other matters besides investitures; — ou 
the long vacancy of sees and benefices ; on the king's 
appropriating the profits of them to his own uses 



VII.] ANSELM. 79 

on his exactions and simoniacal sales. On each of 
these heads was not Ansehn justifiable ? You do 
not give him the praise he merits, for his con- 
duct between Henry I. and Robert. Permit me 
to request you to peruse doctor Gibson's celebrated 
preface to his Codeoj Juris Ecclesiastici ; and then 
say, whether that prelate, and all the prelates of his 
high school, would not, if they had lived in the 
times of Anselm, have thought it their duty to act, 
in a great measure, like him ? 



80 



BECKET. 



[Letter 



LETTER VIII. 

IMMUNITIES OF THE CHURCH — ST. THOMAS 
A BECKET. 

SIR, 

YOU dedicate a great part of your eighth chap- 
ter to the contest between Henry II. and the cele- 
brated Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, 
whom the church of Rome numbers among her 
saints. You try him by the present constitution, 
the present laws, and the present manners of chris- 
tian states, and by the present notions of what is 
fit and proper, and you pronounce him guilty. But 
is it not by the constitutions, the laws, the customs, 
the manners, and the notions of his own time, that 
he should be tried? To pronounce a fair judgment 
on him, should we not transport ourselves to the 
middle of the twelfth century, and to the circum- 
stances of the world at that period? If we did so, 
should we not find that the clerical immunities, 
upon which the contest in its Jirst stage wholly 
turned, founded a part of the constitution of every 
christian state, and of England not less than any 
other ? That they had been both granted and con- 
firmed to the church by wise and great princes ? 
That, from the time in which they date their 
existence, until many centuries after the aera of 
which we are speaking, they had been observed 
and respected by the good? And that they had 



VIII.] BECKET. 81 

never been infringed by any, whose name history 
has handed down to us with honour ? Taking all 
these circumstances into consideration, can we justly 
blame the illustrious prelate for his vigorous and 
resolute defence of rights, which most certainly, in 
his time, made a part of the law of England, and 
were an acknowledged bulwark of the English con- 
stitution? Had this eminent man submitted to the 
monarch in the contest in which they had engaged, 
what guard against the royal abuse of power could 
have been maintained ? You and I have read wijth 
delight, what the most eloquent man of our times 
has said and written of the spoliation of the Gallican 
clergy, and his verified predictions of its disastrous 
result. Had any observer, equally profound and 
gifted, lived in the days of Becket, would he not 
have predicted a result equally disastrous, if Henry's 
aggressions had been crowned with success? Let 
us listen to Montesquieu : ** I am not," says that 
great man, violently in love with the privileges 
" of the clergy; but I wish that their jurisdiction 
" should once be well established. After that, the 
" question is not, whether it was right so to esta- 
*^ blish it, but whether it is established ; whether 
" it makes part of the laws of the land ; and whether 
" it is connected with them throughout ? As much 
" as the power of the church is dangerous in a 
" republic, so much it is useful in a monarchy, 
" particularly in those which tend to despotism. 
" Where would Spain and Portugal be, since the 

G 



82 BECKET, . [Letter 

" loss of their laws, without this power, — the only 
" check on arbitrary sway ?" 

Now, all history informs us, that long before the 
commencement of this celebrated contest the im- 
munities of the clergy had been established, and 
become part of the law of England. Does not this 
decide the question? Must we not conclude, on 
the principles of Montesquieu, that the monarch's 
attack upon them was altogether wrong? That 
Becket, in defending them, was altogether right? 

You notice the observations which Becket, when 
he was solicited to accept the see of Canterbury, is 
related to have made, both to the monarch and to his 
confidential friends, — that " he foresaw that, if he 
" should be raised to the see of Canterbury, he must 
" either lose the favour of the king, or sacrifice to 
" it the service of his God. But this," you inform 
us, " was said to the monarch with a smile, so that, 
" whether intentionally or not, it conveyed a mean- 

ing which invalidated the words." May I ask, 
from what author you took this account of Becket's 
smile? or the inference you draw from it? Was 
not Becket's expression a fair and honourable notice 
to the monarch, that he was not to depend on the 
connivance of the archbishop in the illaudable prac- 
tices in which he had already too much indulged? 

You also notice the change in Becket's manners, 
which immediately followed his consecration ; and 
you ridicule his penitential austerities. Are you 
not sensible that, in every part of the globe, in 



VIII.] BECKET. 83 

which Christianity has been received, similar aus- 
terities have been practised by the wisest, the 
noblest, and the best of men! The examples of 
these men you may think of no consequence : but 
what do you say to the high commendations of 
penitential fastings, with which the most eminent 
lights of your own church, — your own Patricks, your 
own Beveridges, your own Gunnings, your own 
book of Common Prayer, and your own homilies, 
abound? They are so strongly expressed, that, if 
we should strike a balance between the fasts which 
they recommend, and those which the archbishop 
practised, the preponderance, if any, in favour of 
the archbishop, would not be very considerable. 
Where is the difference between fzsts and other 
austerities? 

You do not admire his voluntary resignation of the 
office of chancellor ; but was it not an act of duty ? 
You blame him for instituting proceedings for the 
recovery of the lands belonging to his see ; was not 
this, too, an act of duty? Whose memory should the 
present prelacy of the established church of England 
most respect, — the memory of Becket, who pre- 
served the possessions of his see ; or the memory of 
those prelates, so eloquently praised by you in a 
further pare of your work, who, in the reigns of 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth, so liberally compli- 
mented away large portions of them to their 
sovereign ? 

But the character of the archbishop is little 
affected by these incidental inquiries. It rests on 

G 2 



84 BECKET. [Letter 

his conduct at the convention at Clarendon ; and 
on the events which produced his murder. The 
former we may consider as the first, the latter as 
the last stage of the controversy between him and 
his royal master. 

The monarch contended that the clergy should, 
in future, be tried for felonies in his courts of 
justice. To obtain a recognition of this claim, he 
summoned all the prelates of England to West- 
minster ; and required them to acknowledge the 
right of his courts to try the clergy. They hesi- 
tated. He then asked, whether they would pro- 
mise to abide by the antient law of the realm? 
The archbishop, speaking for himself, and for the 
other prelates present, replied, that *' they were 
" willing to be bound by the antient law of the 
" realm, as far as the honour of God, and the 
" church, and the privileges of their order, per- 
" mitted." The king required the omission of the 
saving words : the archbishop insisted on the re- 
tention of them. At first, the other prelates 
adhered to him ; but the king brought them over : 
and, after much solicitation, the archbishop acqui- 
esced. The monarch, to render the assent of the 
prelates to his claims the more solemn, summoned 
the convention of the spiritual and temporal lords 
of his kingdom to Clarendon, near Salisbury. 
When they met, the archbishop expressed a wish 
that the saving words should be retained. He 
consented, however, afterwards to the omission of 
them ; requiring, at the same time, that the cus- 



VIII.] BECKET. 85 

toms should be defined. This was both prudent 
and honourable ; for, while the customs should re- 
main undefined, the dispute would invariably con- 
tinue. Thus there could be no reasonable objection 
to the request of the prelate. It was acceded to 
by the king ; and a specification of the customs 
was accordingly drawn up by a committee, appointed 
by the convention. It was exhibited in sixteen 
articles, called by the historians of the times The 
Constitutions of Clarendon." 

This brings us to the point : — Did the consti- 
tutions exhibit the antient customs of the realms? 
If they did, the archbishop and the other prelates 
were bound, by their promise, to recognize and 
observe them. If they did not, the archbishop and 
the other prelates were bound to neither; nar 
could they acknowledge that the constitutions ex- 
pressed the antient customs of the realm, or bind 
themselves to the observance of them, as such, 
without incurring the guilt, both of a solemn 
untruth, and of treason to the constitution. 

On this point, therefore, the whole question on 
the conduct of the archbishop, at the convention at 
Clarendon, rests altogether. Does it require much 
investigation to arrive at a proper conclusion upon it? 

By one of the articles, the custody and reve- 
nues of the temporalities of every archbishopric, 
bishopric, abbey, or priory of royal foundation, was 
declared to belong, during its vacancy, to the king : 
this was an absolute innovation. 

By another, it was provided, that civil and criminal 
G 3 



8fi BECKET. [Lette 

suits, though each or either party to them were a 
clergyman, should commence in the royal courts ; 
that the justices should decide, whether they ought 
to be determined there, or in the ecclesiastical 
courts ; that, in the latter case, a civil officer 
should attend the trial, and report of the proceed- 
ings ; and that, if the person accused should be 
convicted, he should forfeit the privileges of his 
character, and receive judgment accordingly. All 
this was, perhaps, very proper ; but all was contrary 
to the existing law. 

Another article declared, that tenants in chief 
should not be excommunicated without the leave 
of the king > or, in his absence, of his justiciary. 
This was in opposition to the law of Christ ; and 
to the law of every christian country. It is even 
contrary to the present law of England, and to the 
practice of its courts. 

Another article forbade appeals to Rome. At 
this period of our history appeals were allowed in 
England, and in every other part of the christian 
world. It is observable, that the monarch himself, 
during the contest, appealed more than once to the 
roman see. 

Such being the state of the contest, in this stage 
of it, permit me to say, that it is, with something 
more than surprise, that I read in your work the 
following lines : ^' If these constitutions were in 
direct opposition to the system of Hildebrand 
and his successors, and at once removed all those 
encroachments which the hierarchy had made in 



VIII.] BECKET. 87 

this kingdom during Stephen's contested reign, 
" it should be remembered that they were not new 

edicts, enacted in a spirit of hostility to the 

church, but a declaration and recognition of the 
" ea^isting law*' 

By this, I understand you to affirm, that, as the 
law of England existed in the reign of Henry II, 
it allowed the monarch to retain the profits of 
vacant sees for his own benefit ; it allowed the 
clergy to be tried for petit treason, and less crimes, 
in temporal courts ; it exempted tenants in chief 
from being excommunicated ; and it inhibited 
appeals to Rome. Can any of these positions be 
supported ? — In my humble opinion they cannot. 

Doctor Lingard* thinks with me ; and so does 
our common friend, Mr. Sharon Turner. " In 
justice to Becket," says that learned and dis- 
criminating writer, " it must be admitted that these 

famous articles completely changed the legal and 
" civil state of the clergy j and were an actual 
" subversion, as far as they went, of the papal 
" policy, so boldly introduced by Gregory VII t;'* 
— and then completely received into the civil and 
ecclesiastical polity and jurisdiction of every Euro- 
pean state. 

We now reach the second stage of this import- 
ant controversy. A detail of the incidents is 
foreign to the subject of this letter. It is sufficient 

* History of England, vol. 2, p. 64, 65, 66. 
t Ibid. vol. 1, p. 213. 

G 4 



88 BECKET. [Letter 

to mention succinctly, that, after many fruitless en- 
deavours, a reconciliation between the archbishop and 
the sovereign took place at Freitville, in Normandy ; 
that the archbishop returned to England ; that, 
upon a complaint by him against the prelates, who 
had assisted at the coronation of prince Henry, the 
celebration of which ceremony belonged of right to 
the see of Canterbury, the pope excommunicated 
the bishops of London, Rochester and Salisbury ; 
conferring, at the same time, a power in the arch- 
bishop to absolve them ; that, on his refusal, they 
attended in person on the king, who was then in 
Normandy, to make their complaints against the 
archbishop ; that, irritated by their representa- 
tions, the king exclaimed, Of the cowards who 
*' eat my bread, is there not one who will free 
*' me from this turbulent priest?" That four 
knights, who heard this exclamation, bound them- 
selves by oath to avenge the king ; that they 
sailed for England, and proceeded to Canterbury, 
entered the cathedral, and, advancing to the 
archbishop, required him instantly to absolve the 
bishops ; that he refused to absolve them till they 
made satisfaction ; that, on his refusal, the four 
knights murdered him ; that, as soon as the king wa& 
informed of it, he solemnly denied all participation 
in the guilt ; but admitted the unguarded exclama- 
tion upon which the knights proceeded to the per- 
petration of the crime ; and, on this account, sub- 
mitted to a public and humiliating penance ; and 
was absolved by the pope. Previously to it, he 



VIII.] BECKET. 89 

solemnly abrogated all the unlawful customs, which 
had been introduced into his states, and forbade 
their being observed in future. 

Thus Becket perished for a faithful adherence to 
ecclesiastical duty. The pope himself had excom- 
municated the three prelates. Now, the canons of 
the church require, that, when excommunication has 
been issued, it shall not be taken off until the party 
proves his innocence, or makes his submission : 
even now this is English law. As the case then 
stood, the fact, for which the prelates had been 
excommunicated, was undeniable, and the prelates 
had made no submission. Becket, therefore, had 
no authority to remove the excommunication he 
would have incurred irregularity by doing it, and 
thus have, himself, become liable to the censures of 
the church : hence, he refused, and braved, by his 
refusal, a cruel death. His conduct was admired 
and applauded by the whole world. You must be 
aware, that the liberties, confirmed to the church 
by Magna Charta, included equally those rights 
for which Becket contended at Clarendon, and 
those for which he was murdered at Canterbury. 

Some candid protestants have done justice to his 
memory : Collier's account of the controversy be- 
tween him and his sovereign * deserves a serious 
perusal. 

With one further observation I must trouble 
you. No roman-cathoUc imagines^ at this time, 
that the ecclesiastics were entitled, hy divine rights 

* Ecclesiastical History, vol. 2, p. 343 — 347. 



i)0 BECKET. [Let. VIIL 

to the immuniti/, for which Becket contendedy in 
the first stage of the controversy. All agree, that 
the only real title to it is by grant from the state, 
or by immemorial usage, in which a grant is always 
pre-supposed. Now, such a grant might have been 
made on grounds, both of wisdom and sound policy. 
The rules of the gospel are equally calculated to 
produce obedience to the laws, as to form indivi- 
duals to virtue and holiness ; it is, therefore, the 
duty of the state to promote whatever has a ten- 
dency to make the gospel respected. Experience 
shows, that respect for the gospel exists seldom, 
without respect for its ministers ; there mighty 
therefore, be good sense to keep their occasional 
scandals from the public eye, and, for this purpose, 
to confine the investigation of them to the eccle- 
siastical tribunals of the realm : some individuals 
might, by this arrangement, escape punishment ; 
but the legislature might have been wise in con- 
sidering, that although this would be mischievous^ 
exposure would be a greater mischief. 



91 



LETTER IX. 

I. CESSION BY KING JOHN OF THE SOVEREIGNTY 
OF ENGLAND TO POPE INNOCENT III. II. TEM- 
PORAL POWER OF THE POPE. 

SIR, 

I HAVE now reached your ninth chapter; it 
turns chiefly on the pope's exercise of temporal 
power. In the present state of the controversy 
between the protestants and roman-catholics of this 
realm, it is the most important chapter of your 
work. I shall premise my discussion of it, by some 
observations on your account of the transactions 
between the pope and king John. 

IX. 1. 

Cession hy King John of the Sovereignty of England to 
Pope Innocent III. 

It is usually supposed, that John absolutely di- 
vested himself of the sovereignty of the kingdom, 
and transferred it to Innocent. This was not the 
fact : the monarch retained his sovereignty, but 
agreed, that he and his successors should hold it 
from the pope and his successors in fee simple, by 
homage and fealty, and by the annual render of 
10,000 marks. The consequence was, that, in re- 
spect to his subjects, and their rights, John continued 
in the possession of the same regalities, and subject to 
the same obligations, as before ; for, in all cases of 



92 KING JOHN. [Letter 

lord, vassal, and sub-vassal, the lord had no direct 
right over the sub- vassal, or any direct estate or 
interest in his territory. The lord's right and 
interest consisted in this, that if the vassal neg- 
lected to perform the services, or pay the rent 
incident to his tenure, the territory was subject to 
the lord's remedy for enforcing them, and liable, 
in some instances, to be forfeited. When this 
happened, the vassalage was extinguished ; and the 
sub-vassal became, from that time, chief or imme- 
diate tenant to the lord. It is the same, at the 
present time, with respect to a manor, which the 
lord of it holds of the lord of another manor. If the 
intermediate lord neglects to pay his rent, or to 
perform his service, the superior lord may enforce 
them by distress, and, in some cases, by seizing 
the intermediate manor for forfeiture. When the 
forfeiture takes place, the lordship of the interme- 
diate manor ceases, and the tenants of it become 
actual or immediate tenants of the superior lord. 
It may be added, that, at the time to which the 
subject of these letters has led us, there scarcely 
was, in Christendom, a sovereign who was not pos- 
sessed of territories, for which he was a vassal, 
either to some other sovereign, or to the subject of 
another sovereign. 

Still, if the transaction had rested here, both 
the monarch and the pontiff would have been inex- 
cusable, as the former had no right to confer, or 
the latter to receive, the ultimate feudal superiority 
created by the arrangement. 

But it may be observed, in justification both of 



IX.] KING JOHN, 93 

the monarch and the pontiff, that the prelates, 
barons, and knights of the realm, were parties to 
the transaction, and concurred in it. You yourself 
inform us, that all parties had alternately appealed 
to the pope. The ignominious ceremony was 
performed in their presence, and without even 
a murmur of disapprobation : it may be added, that 
it took place under a national apprehension of a 
French invasion ; and it is not a little remarkable, 
that the barons, soon afterwards, transferred their 
allegiance to Lewis, the son of the French monarch, 
then at the head of the invading army. Consider- 
ing all these circumstances, you will probably 
think with me, that the transaction has not been 
fairly represented by the generality of our histo- 
rians ; that the pontiff shares the blame with the 
king, and his spiritual and temporal lords ; and 
that he was less blameable than either. 

IX. 2. 

Temporal Power of the Pope. 

From an humble fisherman, the pope succes- 
cessively became owner of houses and lands, ac- 
quired the power of magistracy in Rome, and 
large territorial possessions in Italy, Dalmatia, 
Sicily, Sardinia, France and Africa, and ultimately 
obtained the rank and consequence of a great 
temporal prince. 

Here the pope did not stop ; but claimed, by 
divine gift, a right to exercise supreme temporal 



94 THE POPE'S [Letter 

power over all christian sovereigns, when a great 
good of religion required it. This claim was un- 
founded ; both the gospel and tradition declared 
against it, and it produced great evil. 
But let us be just : 
1. In theory, the utility of such a power may 
be imagined. " The interest of human kind," 
says Voltaire, " requires a curb to withhold sove- 
" reigns, and to protect the lives of their subjects. 
" By a general convention, this curb might have 
" been placed in the hands of the popes. These 
supreme pontiffs, — by interfering in temporal 
" quarrels, for no purpose but appeasing them; by 
*^ representing to sovereigns and subjects their 
respective duties ; by reproving their crimes, and 
" reserving excommunications for great enormities, 
" — might have been regarded as gods upon earth. 
" But men are reduced to have no other defence 
than the laws and manners of their country ; 
laws often despised, and manners often corrupt." 
In the middle ages there was often no Such avail- 
able law ; some curb was, therefore, necessary, and it 
could not be placed in better hands than in those 
of the pope. 

2. " By universal convention,^ ^ says Voltaire *, 
it might have been placed in his hands." No 
such universal convention was entered into at any 
specific time ; but, from the repeated acknowledg- 
ment of the sovereigns of almost every christian 



* Essai sur I'Hist. Gen. torn. 2, c. 49. 



IX.] TEMPORAL POWER. 95 

state, may it not be plausibly contended that such 
a convention was tacitly established? " Unhap- 
" pily/' says Voltaire*, " almost all the sovereigns, 
" by an inconceivable blindness, laboured to give 
" it credit in public opinion, as a weapon which 
" depended, for its power, on public opinion only. 
" When it was levelled at one of their rivals, or 
" their enemies, they not only approved but soli- 
" cited it ; and by their undertaking to execute a 
" sentence, which deprived a sovereign of his state, 
" they subjected their own to the usurped juris- 
" diction." In confirmation of this observation of 
Voltaire, we may mention, that when the pope 
excommunicated Phillip Augustus of France, for 
marrying a woman during the life of his first wife, 
he charged the pope with insolence, and an abuse 
of power ; but when the pope conferred the king- 
dom of England upon Phillip, and his heirs, he 
never observed to any one, that the pope had no 
right to dispose of kingdoms. At the league of 
Cambray, the kings of France and Spain recog- 
nized the pope's power of excommunication ; and 
stipulated, that he should subject Venice to an in- 
terdict, if she did not comply with their demands 
within a given time. It is not a little remarkable, 
that, so lately as the sixteenth century, Henry 
VII. than whom no monarch was more jealous 
of his prerogative, or better acquainted with it, 
applied to pope Innocent for a confirmation of his 



* Lettres sur I'Histoire, torn. 2, lett. 2. 4. 



I 

90 THE POPE'S [Letter 

title to the crown. Lord Bacon cites the bull by 
which it was granted. 

I repeat, that the claim was fantastic. But who 
were most blameable, — the popes, who made the 
claim, or the sovereigns, who acknowledged it ? 
The latter were silly ; worldly wisdom could not 
blame the former. 

3. It must be admitted, that the popes, by in- 
sisting upon their claims, sometimes produced good. 
The action and re-action of the pope's aggression, 
and the monarch's resistance, gave to each the locus 
penitentice, the hour of reflection, and brought both 
to moderate councils : this proved, in the result, 
advantageous, both to the religious and the civil 
interests of the people. 

4. It must also be admitted, that, in these con- 
tests, the clergy generally supported the monarch ; 
and that, on other occasions, they resisted the 
undue exertion of papal prerogative. 

5. In most respects, the popes appear to advan- 
tage, both in their sacerdotal and their regal capa- 
cities. That a few, in the long list were stained 
by vice, is not denied ; or that others exhibited the 
workings of those passions, which too often accom- 
pany the possession of power. But can it be said, 
that, even in the times of the greatest darkness, the 
roman pontiffs were not generally distinguished by 
superior virtue and superior acquirements ? Collec- 
tively taken, let them be compared with their con- 
temporary princes in every age, and, most assuredly, 
they will not suffer in the comparison. 



IX,] I'EMPORAL POWER. 97 

Voltaire observes, that, in the dark ages, there 
was less of barbarism and ignorance, in the domi- 
nions of the popes, than in any other European 
state. Much, unquestionably, was done by them, 
in every portion of Christendom, to dispel ignorance, 
to spread the faith and morality of the gospel, to 
protect the lower ranks against their oppressors, to 
preserve peace among princes, and to alleviate the 
general calamity of the times. Their exertions, 
during the middle ages, to compel the monarchs of 
Europe to respect the sanctity of marriage, have 
not been sufficiently observed. Had it not been 
for these, royal incontinence, even of the worst 
kind, would probably have become common, and 
might perhaps have been generally imitated. 

Persecuted and plundered in England, France, 
Spain, Germany, and every other European state, 
the Jews were uniformly protected by the popes. 
Great exertions were made by them for the 
redemption of captives, and the amelioration of 
the condition of the slaves : in 1167, pope Alex- 
ander in. solemnly declared in council, that all 
christians ought to be exempt from slavery. The 
popes were always in favour with the lower classes : 
a certain sign of the protection which that portion 
of the community received from them. Mr. Sharon 
Turner observes^ '*that no tyranny,*' (I wish he 
had used another word), " was ever established, that 

was more unequivocally the creature of popular 
" will 5 nor longer maintained by popular support 
* History of England, vol. 2, p. 332. 361. 
H 



93 THE POPE'S [Letter IX. 

And that, in no point, did personal interest and 
" public welfare more unite, than in the encourage- 
" ment of monasteries." Nothing contributed 
more to elevate the third estate into notice, or give 
it importance, than the assistance which the Italian 
republics, in their contests with the emperors, re- 
ceived from the popes. Their exertions for the 
conversion of infidels were unremitted. Few na- 
tions can read the history of the introduction of 
Christianity among their ancestors, without being 
sensible of their obligations to the tiara. 

Writing to a gentleman of your erudition, I have 
less hesitation in expressing myself in the manner 
I have done, than I should have otherwise. No 
one knows better than yourself, that, whatever ad- 
vocates for the pope's temporal power may have 
existed formerly, no advocate for it can be found 
now. It is rejected in the Gallican declaration of 
1682, which was signed by every ecclesiastic, secu- 
lar or religious, in France. All the English, Irish 
and Scottish catholics have disclaimed it upon oath. 
Perhaps it never was quite so hideous as it has been 
represented ; but, 

" Peace to the strepent horn." 

Shenstone. 



TEMPORAL POWER. 



9& 



LETTER X. 
VIEW OF THE ROMAN-CATHOLIC SYSTEM. 
SIR, 

THE title which you give to the chapter of your 
work, which I have now to consider, is, View of 

the Papal System The words poperT/, papal 
and papist being particularly offensive to roman- 
catholics, I have altered it, by substituting the 
word roman -catholic" for the word papal. 
In the oath, which the legislature has prescribed 
to us, we are styled " roman-catholics." On this 
account it has always been a rule with me, to 
denote, in my publications, the religious denomi- 
nation of christians to which I belong, by the 
appellation of " romaurcatholics/' 

Under the numerous heads of, — I. Devotion to 
the Virgin Mary, the saints and angels, and respect 
to the cross, and the relics of the saints : — ll. Pur- 
gatory, and prayers for the dead : — IIL Auricular 
confession and indulgences :-— IV. St. Augustine 
and Pelagius : — V. Transubstantiation : — And VI. 
The authority of the pope : — I shall take succes- 
sively into consideration, the principal subjects 
upon which you criminate the roman-catholics in 
your tenth chapter. A controversial discussion of 
any of these topics would be misplaced in this 
publication. All that I shall attempt will be, to 
state, in the shortest manner possible, the doctrine 
of the roman-catholic church on these different 

H 2 



100 ROMAN-CATHOLIC SYSTEM. [Letter 

heads, accompanying them with short remarks. I 
shall close my letter with some general obser- 
vations. 

X. 1. 

Devotion to the Virgin Mary, the Saints,- — respect to the 
Cross^ and to the Relics of the Saints. 

1. The saints, reigning with Christ, ofFer up 
" their prayers to God for man. It is a good and 
" useful supplication to invoke them ; and to have 
recourse to their prayers, help and assistance to 
obtain favours from God, through his Son Jesus- 
" Christ our Lord, above, who is our Redeemer 
and Saviour." This is the decree of the council 
of Trent*. — The catechism, published in pursuance 
of its decrees, teaches, that God and the saints^ 
are not to be prayed to in the same manner ; for 
** we pray to God that He himself would give u& 
good things, and deliver us from evil things : 
*^ but we beg of the saints, because they are pleas- 
ing to God, that they would be our advocates,, 
and obtain from God what we stand in need 
oft." Consult Bossuet's Ea:position of Faith, 
under this article ; read the catechisms, which we 
successively put into the hands of children, youths 
and persons grown up : examine all our writers, 
either profound or popular, you will meet with the 
same doctrine. Open our prayer books, you will 

* Sess. XXV. de Livocatione Sanctorum, 
t Part iv. Quis Orandus. 



X.] DEVOTiaN TO SAINTS. 101 

find, that, when we address God the Father, God 
the Son, God the Holy Ghost, or the Holy 
Trinity, we say to them, Have mercy 07i us 
and that, when we address the blessed Virgin, the 
saints, or the angels, — the descent is infinite, — and 
we say to them, *' Pray for us.'* 

What do we think of those, who give to the 
Virgin Mary, to the saints, or to the angels, the 
honour due to God ? Open Mr. Gother's ''Papist 
Misrepresented^'' abridged by doctor Challoner, 
— the editions of which abridgment are countless, — 
you will find in them these strong expressions : 
Cursed is he that believes the saints in heaven 
to be his redeemers ; that prays to them as 
such; or that gives God's honour to them, or to 
any creature whatsoever. Amen." — Cursed is 
^' every goddess- worshipper, that believes the blessed 
^' Virgin Mary to be any more than a creature ; 

that worships her, or puts his trust in her, more 
^' than in God ; that believes she is above her Son, 
" or that she can, in any thing, command Him. 
" Amen." 

Does not the Greek church ; do not all the other 
churches, which separated from the church of 
Rome, before the Reformation, invoke the Virgin 
Mary, the other saints, and the angels } Does not 
Martin Luther* exclaim, "Who can deny that God 
- ' works great miracles at the tombs of the saints ? 
" I therefore, with the whole catholic church, hold, 

* In his letters to Spalatinus, and his treatise de Purga- 
tione cjuorundem, and in his Preparatio ad Mortem. 



102 THE CROSS. [Letter 

" that the saints are to be honoured and invoked 
" by us. Let no one omit to call upon the blessed 
" Virgin, the angels and saints, that they may inter- 
" cede for them at the hour of death." Do not 
several distinguished divines of your church main- 
tain the same doctrine? Is it not approved by 
Leibniz*? Finally, does not doctor Thorndike t 
warn his brethren " not to lead people by the nose 
to believe, that they can prove papists to be 
idolators, when they cannot." 
Then permit me to ask, whether the authorities 
which I have cited, do not give a true and clear 
exposition of the doctrine of the catholic church, 
upon this important subject ? — Whether the doc- 
trine be idolatrous or superstitious ? — Whether the 
practice of it do not fill the mind with soothing 
reflections ?^ — With thoughts that increase charity 
and animate piety ? You cannot find a virtuous 
catholic, who will not own to you, that he considers 
the hours, thus spent by him, to be among the 
most pleasing of his life, 

2. Pursuing the same method, in respect to the 
cross, a7id relics of the saints, I shall transcribe 
the decree of the council of Trent upon them : 
Although the images of Christ, the Virgin 
Mother of God, and the other saints, are to be 
kept and retained, particularly in churches, and 
due honour and veneration paid to them, yet we 

* Exposition cle la Systeme de Leibniz sur la Religion. 
Paris, 8vo. 1819, p. iGi. 

t Just Weights and Measures, p. 10. 



X.] RELICS. 103 

" are not to believe, that there is any divinity or 

power in them, for vv'hich we respect them, or 
" that any thing is to be asked from them, or that 

trust is to be placed in them, as the heathens 

of old trusted in their idols." Consult all the 
authors mentioned in the former part of this letter, 
you will find the same language. Open our cate- 
chisms, you will find it asked, ** May we pray to 

relics or images r" You will find it answered, 
" No, by no means, for they have no life or sense 
" to hear or help us." Then, open Gather' s 

Papist Misrepresented,'* you will read, "Cursed 
" is he that commits idolatry, that prays to images 

or relics, or wwships them for God." 
Such is the doctrine of the catholic church, on 
those subjects. 

3. We venerate the cross, as a memorial of the 
passion and death of the Author of our salvation. 
We venerate the images, paintings, and relics, of 
the saints, as memorials, that bring their virtues 
and rewards to our minds and hearts. We also 
venerate their relics, as portions of their holy 
bodies, which will be glorified through all eternity. 

In all this, can you find out any thing repre- 
hensible } 

X. 2. 

Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead. 

As I am not writing a work of controversy^ 
I shall say little on the articles in your present 
chapter which remain to be discussed. 

H 4 



104 PURGATORY. [Letter 

1. As to the eMStence of purgatory , for the 
belief of which the roman- catholics have been so 
often and so harshly reviled, — Do not all, who call 
themselves rational protestants," think wath us, 
that, (to use the language of doctor Johnson), " the 

generality of mankind are neither so obstinately 
" wicked, as to deserve everlasting punishment ; nor 

so good, as to merit being admitted into the 

society of the blessed spirits ; and that God is, 
" therefore, generously pleased to allow a middle 
" state, where they may be purified by a certain 
''degree of suffering." With those who profess 
this doctrine, does not your own opinion accord ? 

As to prayers for the dead. The council of 
Trent ^ has decreed, that there is a purgatory, 
" and that the souls detained in it are helped by 
" the suffrages of the faithful." 

The nature and extent of these suffrages are 
thus explained by St. Augustine t : " When the 
" sacrifice of the altar, or alms, are offered for the 

dead, then, in regard to those whose lives were 

very good, such sacrifices may be deemed acts of 
" thanksgiving. In regard to the imperfect, they 
" may be deemed acts of propitiation ; though 
" they bring no aid to the very bad, they may 
" give some comfort to the living." 

Tradition, in favour of the catholic doctrine 
of purgatory, is so strong, that Calvin confesses 
explicitly, that '' during 1,300 years before his 

* Sess. XXV. Deeretum de Purgatione, p. 2860 
t Enchird, c. xc. torn. 2, p. 83. 



X.] PURGATORY. 105 

" time, (1,600 before ours), it had been the practice 
" to pray for the dead, in the hope of procuring 
" them relief." You yourself will scarcely venture 
to assert, that there is any thing substantially 
wrong in this devotion, when you recollect, that 
archbishop Cranmer said a solemn mass for the 
soul of Henry II. of France ; that bishop Ridley 
preached, and that eight other prelates assisted at 
it in their copes. 



X. 3- 

Auricular Confession — Indulgences. 

In respect to the auricular confession, I hope 
you will be convinced, that it does not deserve a 
bitter word, when you have perused the following 
testimonies in its favour. 

" The Lutheran," says doctor Milner, in his 
End of Controversy, '* who are the elder branch 

of the reformation, in their confession of faith, 
*' and apology for that confession, expressly teach, 
" that absolution is no less a sacrament than bap- 

tism and the Lord's Supper ; that particular abso- 
" lution is to be retained in confession ; that, to 
" reject it, is the error of the Novatian heretics ; and 

that, by the power of the keys, (Matth. xvi. 19.), 
*^ sins are remitted, not only in the sight of the 
" church, but also in the sight of God *. Luther 

himself, in his catechism, required that the peni- 



* Confess. August, art. xi. xii. xiii. ApoL 



106 CONFESSION. [Letter 

tent, in confession, should expressly declare, that 
" he believes the forgiveness of the priest to be the 
" forgiveness of God ^. What can bishop Porteus, 
" and other modern protestants, say to all this, 
" except that Luther and his disciples were in- 

fected with popery? Let us then proceed to 
" inquire into the doctrine of the most distin- 

guished heads. In the order of the communion, 
" composed by Cranmer, and published by Ed- 

ward VI. the parson, vicar, or curate, is to proclaim 

this, among other things, ' If there be any of 
" you, whose conscience is troubled and grieved at 
*' any thing, lacking comfort or counsel, let him 
" come to me, or to some other learned priest, and 
" confess and open his sin and grief secretly, &c. 
" that of us, as a minister of God, and of the 
*' church, he may receive comfort and absolution t.' 
" Conformably with this admonition, it is ordained 
" in the common Prayer Book, ' that when the 
* ' minister visits any sick person, the latter should 

be moved to make a special confession of his 
" sins, if he feels his conscience troubled with any 
" weighty matter ; after which confession, the 
" priest should absolve him, if he humbly and 
" heartily desire it, after this sort : Our Lord 
" Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his church 
" to absolve all sinners, who truly repent and 
^' believe in him, of his great mercy, forgive thee 

* In Catech. Parv, See also Luther's Table Talk, c. xviii. 
on Auricular Confession. 

t Bishop Sparrow's Collect, p. lo. 



X.] CONFESSION. 107 

*' thine offences ; and by his authority^ committed 
" to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the 
" name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
" Holy Ghost, Amen I may add, that soon 

after James I. became, at the same time, the 

member and the head of the English church, he 
" desired his prelates to inform him, in the confer- 

ence at Hampton Court, what authority this 
" church claimed in the article of absolution from 

sin. When archbishop Whitgift began to en- 
" tertain him with an account of the general 
" confession and absolution, in the communion 
" service, with which the king not being satisfied, 

Bancroft, at that time bishop of London, fell on 
" his knees, and said, * It becomes us to deal 
" plainly with your majesty. There is also in the 

book a more particular and personal absolution 
*' in the Visitation of the Sick. Not only the con- 

fession of Augusta, (Augsburg), Bohemia and 
" Saxony, retain and allow it, but also Mr. Calvin 
" doth approve both such a general and such a 

private confession and absolution.' To this the 
*' king answered, ' I exceedingly well approve of 
" it, being an apostolical and godly ordinance, 

given, in the name of Christ, to one that desireth 
" it, upon the clearing of his conscience t.* " 

* Order of the Visitation of the Sick. N» B. To encourage 
the secret confession of sins, the church of England has made 
a canon, requiring her ministers not to reveal the same. See 
Canones Eccles. a. d. 1693, n. 113. 

f Fuller's Ch, Hist. B.x. p. 9. See the defence of Ban- 
croft's successor in the sec of Canterbury, doctor Laud, who 



108 CONFESSION. [Letter 

I beg leave to add the words of the immortal 
Chillingworth for by this epithet he is fre- 
quently distinguished by your writers. 

Can any man be so unreasonable as to imagine 
that, when our Saviour in so solemn a manner, — 
having first breathed upon his disciples, thereby 
" conveying and insinuating the Holy Ghost into 
" their hearts,— renewed unto them, or rather con- 
firmed that glorious commission, &c. whereby he 
delegated to them an authority of binding and 
^* loosing sins upon earth, &c. — can any one think, 
I say, so unworthily of our Saviour, as to esteem 
these words of his for no better than compliment? 
Therefore, in obedience to his gracious will, and as 
^* I am warranted and enjoined by my holy mother, 
" the church of England, I beseech you, that, by 
" your practice and use, you will not suffer that 
commission, which Christ hath given to his minis- 
ters, to be a vain form of words, without any sense 
" under them. When you find yourselves charged 
" and oppressed, &c. have recourse to your spiritual 
" physician, and freely disclose the nature and ma- 
^' lignancy of your disease, he. And come not to 
" him only with such mind as you would go to a 
learned man ; as one that can speak comfort- 
" able things to you ; hut as to one that hath 

endeavoured to enforce auricular confession, in Heylin's 
Life of Laud, part 2, p. 415. It appears, from this writer, 
that Laud was confessor to the duke of Buckingham ; and, 
from Burnet, that bishop Morley was confessor to the duchess 
of York, when a protestant. Hist, of his own Times. 



X,] INDULGENCES. 109 

author itij delegated to him from God himself^ 
" to absolve and acquit you of your sins^,*^ 

To these testimonies, — which should have so 
much weight with you, — I shall only add the same 
ohservation as I have just made on our doctrine of 
prayers for the dead ; that in the Greek churchy 
and in the numerous oriental churches of the Nes- 
torians, Eutycliians. and Monothelites, who sepa- 
rated from the church of Rome in an early age of 
Christianity, auricular confession is retained and 
practised. Does not this circumstance incontro. 
vertibly prove its early admission into the church ? 
In ecclesiastical doctrine and discipline is not such 
early antiquity always respectable ? 

In respect to indulgences. — I flatter myself that, 
when you see the doctrine of the roman-catholics 
upon them, divested of the misrepresentations which 
have too often been made of it, and are yet too 
often repeated, you will find nothing in it contrary 
to common sense, or prejudicial to the interests of 
religion or morality. 

The roman-catholic church teaches, that God 
frequently remits the essential guilt of sin and the 
eternal punishment incurred by it, but leaves a 
temporal punishment to be incurred by the sinner; 
that this temporal punishment may consist either of 
evil in this life, or of temporal suffering in the 
next, — which temporal suffering in the next life 
we call purgatory ; that the temporal punishment 
may consist of both these inflictions, and that the 

* Serm. vii. Relig. of Prot. pp. 408, 409. 



110 INDULGENCES. [Letter 

church has received power from God to remit 
them either wholly or partially. This remission is 
called an Indulgence. When the temporal punish- 
ment is wholly remitted, the indulgence is said to 
be plenary ; when the remission is partial, the 
indulgence is proportionably limited. Thus, an 
indulgence of a certain number of days, or of 
months, or years, is a remission, during that period 
of time, of the temporal punishment due to the 
sinner. 

To every indulgence conditions are annexed : 
the first, is sincere repentance. Now, in the un- 
derstanding of the catholic church, sincere repent- 
ance always includes a sincere sorrow for having 
offended God ; and, when a neighbour has been 
injured, full reparation for the injury, when the 
circumstances of the penitent allow it ; or, when 
this is not the case, the fullest reparation in his 
power, with a firm resolution to complete it, if his 
circumstances should afterwards enable him so to 
do. This restitution equally extends to injuries 
in character, as to personal or pecuniary injuries. 
It is never dispensed with. Will the making of it 
reduce the penitent to indigence ? Will it occa- 
sion the loss of his own character? Still the priest 
insists upon its being made. Such is the doctrine, 
such the practice of the roman -catholic church 
respecting indulgences. 

I wish you would peruse the sermons of Bour- 
dalou9 " Sur la Restitution," and Sur Le 
" Jubile.— After you have perused them, I should 



X] INDULGENCES. Ill 

wish to ask you whether, if you should find your- 
self injured in fortune or character, and learn that 
the person who had injured you was a roman- 
catholic, you would feel you had a less chance of 
restitution on account of the catholic doctrine of 
confession and of indulgences ? 

You mention the abuses of indulgences. You say 
indulgences have been too easily granted ; and 
that they have been often sold. It is too true : 
but what has not been abused ? There is not in 
the universe a territory in which, in every secular, 
and every ecclesiastical department, some abuse 
does not exist. Are we, on that account, to con- 
clude with the Lollards, and other Manichean 
radicals, that all government is evil ? 

You have seen the ""Taxa Cancellarii Romani 
and you conclude that the sums of money, stated in 
that document to be paid for absolutions, are the 
purchase of them at those prices. The real state of 
the case is as follows : — There are some sins so 
enoraious, that, in order to raise the greater horror 
of them, the absolution from them is reserved to 
the holy see. In these cases the priest, to whom 
the penitent reveals them in confession, states them, 
without any mention of person, time or place, to the 
roman see ; and the roman see, when it thinks 
the circumstance of the case renders it proper, 
grants a faculty to the priest to absolve the penitent 
from them. All this is attended with expense. 
An office or tribunal is kept up for the purpose, 
and, to defray the expenses attending these ap- 



112 INDULGENCES. [Letter 

plications, a fee is required for the document in 
which the power of absolution is granted. Thus 
these sums of money are only fees of office : they 
are small : the lips of a Roman datary would water 
at the sight of a bill of an English proctor. When 
the absolute poverty of the party is stated, no fee is 
required. 

Does the church of England grant no indul- 
gence or absolution for money ? Consult your own 
canons'^'. In a remonstrance of grievances pre- 
sented by a committee of the Irish parliament to 
Charles L complaint is made that " several bishops 

received great sums of money for commutations 
" of penance, which they had converted to their 

own uset.'' Has not doctor Glover t abundantly 
shown that commutations of penance for money 
are, at this time, practised in your church ? Do 
I, then, criminate the church of England upon this 
account ? I only say, that her ministers should be 
circumspect, in criminating the church of Rome 
for similar commutations. 

* Articuli pro Claro, a.d. 1584, Sparrow, 195. Received 
by the Synod of London in 1597, Sparrow, 248 — 252. 
Canon 14, Sparrow, 368. 

t Cited by doctor Curry, in his Historical Memoirs of 
Ireland, vol. 1, p. 109. 

X In his Reply to the Bishop of Peterborough, 



X.] 



AUGUSTINE. 



113 



X. 4. 

St. Augustine and Pelagins. 

Britain," you inform us, ** has the credit or 
" discredit, wliichever it may be deemed, of having 
" given birth to Pelagius, the most remarkable 

man of whom Wales can boast, and the most 
" reasonable of all those men, whom the antient 

church has branded vv^ith the note of heresy." 
What proofs of superior reason were exhibited by 
Pelagius, I have yet to learn. By your account, he 
denied original sin j and this, you justly observe, 
*' is a perilous error." But, by your account also, 
'* he vindicated the goodness of God, by asserting 
" the free-will of man ; and he judged more sanely 

than his triumphant antagonist St. Augustine, 
" who, retaining too much of the philosophy which 
" he had learued in the Manichean school, in- 
** fected with it the whole church during many 
" centuries, and afterwards divided both the catho- 
" lie and protestant world." Is this a fair state- 
ment of the comparative merit of Pelagius and St. 
Augustine ? Does it give an accurate view of the 
controversy between them ? You add, that, of 

all those ambitious spirits, who have adulterated 
*^ the true doctrine of revelation with their own 

opinions, Augustine, perhaps, is the one who has 
" produced the widest and most injurious eifects." 

Many of the most eminent lights of your church 
have entertained a very different opinion of this 

I 



114 AUGUSTINE [Letter 

great man ; you will find their testimonies collected 
in Mr. Brerely's ^* Religion of St. Augustine," 
printed in 1620. Luther^ affirms, that, since 
" the apostles* time, the church had never a better 
" doctor than St. Augustine;" and that, " after 
" the sacred scriptures, there is no doctor in the 

church, who is to be compared with him." If 
you even cursorily run over the parts of doctor 
Lardner's learned work, which relate to the Mani- 
chees, you will see that the doctor repeatedly men- 
tions St. Augustine in terms of the highest praise ; 
and, as Lardner had attentively read and considered 
all St. Augustine's works, his testimony is certainly 
of the greatest importance. Permit me to recom- 
mend his " Confessions " to your perusal; you will 
be delighted with them. If he had written no other 
work, this would give him a high rank among the 
most sublime, elegant and pious writers. 

As to your preference of Pelagius, I need not 
mention to a gentleman of your learning, that dis- 
putes on free-will have agitated the world, both 
before and after the introduction of Christianity. 
The difficulty has always been to discover some 
system, which reconciles the freedom of will with 
the influence of motive upon it ; and which makes 
the good works of men meritorious in the eyes of 
the Almighty, while yet they remain his absolute 
gift. Pelagius maintained, that, both in the choice 
and execution of good, man acts independently of 
divine grace. In opposition to him, St. Augustine 

* Luth. Op. ed. Witten, torn. 7 ; Loc. Comm, class 4, p. 45. 



X.J AND PEALGIUS. 115 

maintained, that grace prevents and aids our will ; 
but does not destroy it. When he was pressed 
to explain, how God could be the sole author of 
good, unless his grace necessitated man to the choice 
or execution of it, he acknowledged the extreme 
difficulty of the question : he frequently gives no 
other answer, than exclaiming with St. Paul*' ; 
Oh ! the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom 
and the knowledge of God ! His judgments, how 
" unsearchable ! His ways, how past belief! " He 
felt that the subject was beyond his reason ; the 
time he knew would come, when the Almighty 
" would be judged and overcome — that is, when 
all the dispositions of his providence would be un- 
folded ; and the justice, the wisdom, and the holi- 
ness of his councils, would be seen and acknow- 
ledged. 

Such is the system of St. Augustine on this dif- 
ficult and abstruse subject : — I leave you now to 
decide between him and his adversary. 

I am the more surprised at the harshness of your 
language, in respect to St. Augustine, as that great 
man was harsh to no one : he was mild and humble, 
even to those, whom he thought most to deserve 
blame. One passage in his writings is, upon this 
account, so exquisitely beautiful, that I cannot help 
transcribing it, particularly as I know that you, 
too, will peruse it with pleasure : — Let those be 

severe upon persons in error, who know not with 



* Rom. xi. 33. 



116 WRITERS ON [Letter 

** what labour truth is discovered, and error 
" avoided. Let those be severe w^ho know not how 
" harshly the diseases of the mind are cured, and 
" the eye of the understanding prepared to see 
the light. Let those be severe who were never 
" entangled in error. As for me, I cannot be 
" severe ; I know the patience and long forbear- 
" ance I myself have wanted*." 

X. 5. 

Transuhstantiation. 

You will expect to find something in this letter 
upon the important question of transuhstantiation. 

You inform us, that, of all the corruptions of 
" Christianity, there was none which the popes so 
" long hesitated to sanction as transuhstantiation." 
You mention " the flagrant absurdity of this doc- 
" trine;" and you say, that pope Gregory VII. 
" inclined to the opinion of Berenger, who opposed 
" it." But there is not one of these assertions for 
which you cite any authority : / deny them all ; 
and for the authorities, upon which I ground my 
denial, I refer you to " Doctor Milner's Letter on 
" Transuhstantiation," among those addressed by 
him to the late doctor Sturges ; to his letters on 
the same subject in his End of Controversy," and 
to his Powerful vindication of it."—" I do, in 
" my heart," the late dean Milner of Carlisle used 



* 1 Ep. ad Fund, 



X.] TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 117 

to say, love a strong argument:" if you have the 
same liking, I recommend you to peruse the three 
works T have just mentioned : many a strong argu- 
ment on the subject in question you will find in 
every one of them. If you will peruse the account 
of Berenger, in the Histoire Literaire de la France, 
you will find your total misapprehension of the 
transactions between that celebrated man and pope 
Gregory VI I. You will find that, as soon as Beren- 
ger's doctrine became known, it received that blow, 
which tradition always gives to religious novelty, 
— the universal reprobation of it by the pastors of 
the church of Christ. You will also find, that 
before it was condemned by Grcirory VII, it had 
been successively condemned by pope Leo IX, Vic- 
tor II, Nicholas II, and Alexander 11. and proscribed 
by councils held at Rome, at Paris, at Vercelli, in 
1050; at Florence, in 1054; at Rome, in 1058, 
1 076, 1078, and 1079 ; finally, that after many 
subterfuges, it was retracted by its author : that he 
lived ten years after his retractation, and never 
swerved from it. It is possible that, after perusing 
these lines, and consulting the authorities to which 
they refer, you should remain an unbeliever in the 
catholic doctrine of transubstantiation ; but 1 shall 
be surprised if you should continue to think, that, 
when Gregory VI I. ascended the pontifical throne^ 
it was a novelty ; or that it is decent to treat it, 
or the believers of it, with contumely. 

I shall resume the subject in a subsequent letter : 
I shall there consider the statute of the 30th of 

I 3 



118 AUTHORITY OF [Lette . 

Chas. II. which renders it necessary for peers, before 
they take their seats in parliament, to take an oath 
against transubstantiation ; and thus, while it ad- 
mits Jews, Mahometans, Deists and Atheists into 
parliament, excludes roman-catholic peers from 
their hereditary seats in that august assembly. 

X. 6. 

1 . — The Authority of the Pope. 

Towards the end of your present chapter, you 
cite from some roman-catholic writers, and roman- 
catholic documents, several expressions respecting 
the rank and power of the pope, and represent 
them equally astonishing and disgusting by their 
general folly or impiety. But you do not, in a 
single instance, mention the work or the document 
from which your citations are made. Supposing 
them all to be truly represented, still they do not 
alFect the catholic cause ; as they are not the lan- 
guage of the catholic church, but expressions of 
individuals, for whom, whatever may be their rank 
or character, the roman-catholic church is not 
answerable. 

A chain of roman-catholic writers on papal power 
might be supposed : On the first link we might 
place the roman-catholic writers, who have immo- 
derately exalted the prerogative of the pope ; on 
the last we might place those, who have unduly 
depressed it j and the centre link might be con- 



X.] THE POPE. 119 

sidered to represent the canon of the loth session 
of the council of Florence, which defined, that 
" full power was delegated to the bishop of Rome, 
" in the person of St. Peter, to feed, regulate, and 
govern the universal church, as expressed in the 
" general councils and holy canons/' This is 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE ROMAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH 

ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE POPE, and bcyoud it 
no roman-catholic is required to believe. Some 
opinions, represented by the intermediate links on 
each side of the central link, are allowed. Those, 
on one side, may be supposed to represent Orsi, and 
the author of the learned treatise, intitled " Quis 
" est Petrus who explain the doctrine, expressed 
in the council of Florence, in a manner very favour- 
able to the papal prerogative ; while the interme- 
diate links, on the other side, represent Bossuet, 
la Marca, and other writers, who construe the canon 
in a more limited sense. The former have received 
the appellation of Transalpine divines ; the latter, 
are called Cisalpine. I will endeavour to present 
you with a short view of their different systems; 
first premising what the roman- catholic church con- 
siders to be of faith upon this important article of 
her creed. 

X. 6. 

1.— "Universal Doctrine of the Roman-Catholics respecting 
the Supremacy of the Pope. 

It is an article of the roman-catlwUc faith, that 
the pope has, by divine right, i . A supremacy of 

1 4 



120 SUPREMACY OF [Letter 

rank ; 2. A supremacy of jurisdiction in the spiri- 
tual concerns of the roman-catholic church ; and 
3. The principal authority in defining articles of 
faith. In consequence of these prerogatives, the 
pope holds a rank, splendidly pre-eminent, over 
the highest dignitaries of the church ; has a right 
to convene councils, and preside over them by him- 
self, or his legates, and to confirm the election of 
bishops. Every ecclesiastical cause may be brought 
to him, as the last resort, by appeal ; he may pro- 
mulgate definitions and formularies of faith to the 
universal church ; and, when the general body, or 
a great majority of her prelates, have assented to 
them, either by formal consent, or tacit assent, all 
are bound to acquiesce in them. Rome," they 
say, in such a case, *' has spoken, and the cause 
** is determined," To the pope, in the opinion of 
all roman-catholics, belongs also a general superin- 
tendence of the concerns of the church ; a right, 
when the canons provide no line of action, to direct 
the proceedings ; and, in extraordinary cases, to 
act in opposition to the canons. In those spiritual 
concerns, in which, by strict right, his authority is 
not definitive, he is entitled to the highest respect 
and deference. — Thus far, there is no difference of 
opinion among roman-catholics : but here, they 
divaricate into the Transalpine and Cisalpine opi- 
nions. You must be aware, that I use the words 
Transalpine and Cisalpine in the sense in which they 
are generally used in these discussions : there cer- 
tainly are some Transalpine territories in which the 



X.] THE POPE. 121 

Cisalpine opinions, on papal power, prevail ; but 
I am not aware of the existence of any Cisalpine 
territory, which adopts the Transalpine opinions. 

X. 6. 

3. — Difference between Transalpine and Cisalpine 
Doctrines, on the Temporal and Spiritual Power of 
the Pope. 

The great difference between the Transalpine 
and Cisalpine divines, on the power of the pope, 
formerly was,— that the Transalpine divines at- 
tributed to the pope a divine right to the exercise, 
indirect at least, of temporal power, for effecting 
a spiritual good ; and, in consequence of it, main- 
tained, that the supreme power of every state was 
so far subject to the pope, that, when he deemed 
that the bad conduct of the sovereign rendered it 
essential to the good of the church, that he should 
reign no longer, the pope was then authorized, by his 
divine commission, to deprive him of his sovereignty, 
and absolve his subjects from their obligation of 
allegiance ; and that even, on ordinary occasions, 
he might enforce obedience to his spiritual legisla- 
tion and jurisdiction, by civil penalties. — On the 
other hand, the Cisalpine divines affirmed, that the 
pope had no right, either to interfere in temporal 
concerns, or to enforce obedience to his spiritual 
legislation or jurisdiction, by temporal power ; and 
consequently, had no right to deprive a sovereign 
of his sovereignty, to absolve his subjects from their 



122 TRANSALPINE, [Letter 

allegiance, or to enforce his spiritual authority over 
either, by civil penalties. This difference of opi- 
nion exists now no longer, the Transalpine divines 
having at length adopted, on this subject, the Cis- 
alpine opinions. 

But though, on this important point, both parties 
are at last agreed, they still differ on others. 

In spiritual concerns, the Transalpine opinions 
ascribe to the pope a superiority, and controlling 
power over the whole church, should she chance to 
oppose his decrees, and consequently, over a gene- 
ral council, her representative ; and the same supe- 
riority and controlling power, even in the ordinary 
course of business, over the canons of the universal 
church. They describe the pope as the fountain of 
all ecclesiastical order, jurisdiction, and dignity. 
They assign to him the power of judging all per- 
sons in spiritual concerns ; of calling all spiritual 
causes to his cognizance ; of constituting, suspend- 
ing, and deposing bishops ; of conferring all eccle- 
siastical dignities and benefices, in or out of his 
dominions, by paramount authority ; of exempting 
individuals and communities from the jurisdiction 
of their prelates ; of evoking to himself, or to 
Judges appointed by him, any cause actually pend- 
ing in an ecclesiastical court ; and of receiving im- 
mediately appeals from all sentences of ecclesiastical 
courts, though they be inferior courts, from which 
there is a regular appeal to an intermediate superior 
court. They, further, ascribe to the pope the extra* 
ordinary prerogative of personal infallibility, when 



X.] AND CISALPINE. m 

he undertakes to issue a solemn decision on any 
point of faith. 

The Cisalpmes affirm, that in spirituals the pope 
is subject, in doctrine and discipline, to the church, 
and to a general council, representing her ; that he 
is subject to the canons of the church, and cannot, 
except in an extreme case, dispense with them ; 
that, even in such a case, his dispensation is subject 
to the judgment of the church ; that the bishops 
derive their jurisdiction from God himself imme- 
diately, and not derivatively through the pope; that 
he has no right to confer bishoprics, or other 
spiritual benefices of any kind, the patronage of 
which, by common right, prescription, concordat, 
or any other general rule of the church, is vested 
in another. They admit, that an appeal lies to the 
pope from the sentence of the metropolitan ; but 
assert, that no appeal lies to the pope, and that he 
can evoke no cause to himself, during the interme- 
diate process. They affirm, that a general council 
may without, and even against, the pope's consent, 
reform the church. They deny his personal infalli- 
bility, and hold that he may be deposed by the 
church, or a general council, for heresy or schism ; 
and they admit, that in an extreme case *, where 

* Instances of which are, according to the account of 
Bossuet, so very rare, that it is scarcely possible to find true 
examples of such an extreme case in the course of several 
ages. '* Ce qu'il a de principal, c'est, que les cas, auxquels 
" la France soutient le recours du pape au concile, sont 

si rares, qu'a peine on pent en trouver de vrais examples, 
" en plusieurs siecles." Lettre du Bossuet au Cardinal 
d'Estrees. Oeuvres de Bossuet, vol. 9, p. 372, ed. Ben. 



124 APPELLATIONS OF [Letter 

there is a great division of opinion, an appeal lies 
from the pope to a future general council. 

In 1788, certain questions on the power of the 
pope, in temporal concerns, were sent by the desire 
of Mr. Pitt to several foreign universities, for their 
opinions upon them. We shall transcribe, in the 
Appendix, these questions, and the answers given 
to them by the universities. 

Such are the Transalpine, and such the Cisalpine 
opinions, respecting the power of the pope ; each, 
you must be sensible, recedes far from the extreme 
opinions, which the ending links of my supposed 
chain of opinion represent. Both are tolerated by 
the roman-catholic- church, but neither speaks its 
faith : this, as I have mentioned, is contained in 
the canon of the council of Florence, which 1 have 
cited. All the doctrine of that canon on the point 
in question, and nothing but that doctrine, is pro- 
pounded by the roman-catholic church to be be- 
lieved by the faithful: — with this doctrine, but 
with this doctrine only, and the consequences 
justly deducible from it, are the roman-catholics 
answerable. 



X.] 



THE POPE. 



125 



X. 6. 

4. — Remarks on Doctor Southey^s Crimination of the 
Roman-catholic Church, in consequence of the alleged 
intemperate Expressions of some of her Writers on the 
Pope's Authority. 

Hitherto I have addressed you on the suppo- 
sition, that the doctrines and sayings, with which 
you vituperate us, are to be found in respectable 
writers, and are fairly represented. You cite no 
author ; you produce no document to prove your 
assertions. You must be aware how much this 
increases the difficulty of the defence which your 
work imposes upon us ; you must, therefore, excuse 
me for expressing a doubt, whether any of the ex- 
pressions are used by any roman-catholic writers 
in the sense which you put upon them ; and whether 
they have ever been used by any author, whose 
character is such, as confers importance on his 
words. 

You say, that the appellation of God has some- 
times been applied to the pope. I admit it ; but 
are you to learn, that, in the Bible, kings, princes, 
and magistrates are styled gods ? not as divinities, 
or as partakers of the divine nature, but as persons 
eminently exalted, and exercising, by delegation, the 
power, justice or mercy, or some other attribute 
of the divinity. How often do the christian em- 
perors mention, nostra divinitas^ nostra perennitas, 



1^0 APPELLATIONS OF [Letter 

nostra ceternitas, nostrce divines vocis oraculum, 
nostra divina sancita, — our divinity, our eternity, 
the oracle of our divine voice, our divine laws ? 
Read Selden^s Titles of Honor * ; read your own 
Calvin's Commentary on the Passages in the Psalms, 
in which David is called " son of God," Solomon 
is called God," and judges are called " gods." 
He shows, that the word " God" is used in all 
these cases, not as an attribution of divinity to the 
persons to whom it is applied, but as describing 
their supereminent dignity. That, in some in- 
stances, this expression has been used in the second- 
ary sense I have mentioned, and generally in bad 
taste, I willingly concede ; in fact, many of the 
epithets, by which monarchs and other illustrious 
persons are described, will not bear the test of criti- 
cism: you know how Erasmus laughs at them in 
the Encomium Morice, I am very willing to join 
you in his laugh at them ; but I am somewhat sur- 
prised to see you thus treat the matter seriously. 
To treat it thus, became Foulis, the author of the 
" History of Romish Treasons," that great arsenal 
of anti-catholie ribaldry, who probably supplied you 
with the observation ; but surely, to make it a sub- 
ject of solemn words was quite unworthy of you. 
I defy you to produce one instance, in which the 
word God," used potentialiter to indicate the Su- 
preme Being, has been applied by any catholic writer 
to the pope ; or an instance, in which, used in any 



* The first part, c. v. s. 3. 



X.] THE POPE. 127 

sense, any pope has accepted it, or applied it to 
himself. Then why is this odious, this invidious, 
this disgusting charge brought forward against us ? 

In the last page but one of your present chapter 
you say, " Even this monstrous proposition has 

been advanced : that, although the catholic faith 
" teaches all virtue to be good, and all vice evil, 
" nevertheless, if the pope, through error, should 
" enjoin vices to be committed, and prohibit vir- 
** tues, the church would be bound to believe, that 
" vices were good, and virtue evil, and would sin 
*' in conscience, were it to believe otherwise. He 
^* could change the nature of things, and make 

injustice justice." 

Monstrous, indeed, would be such a doctrine ! 
Equally monstrous is it to charge it on the roman- 
catholic church. Is not the charge founded al- 
together on a passage in the treatise of cardinal 
Bellarmine, de Romano Fontifice^? If this be 
the case, your charge is so brittle, that it will fall 
to dust the moment you open the page of Bellar- 
mine which contains it. — You will then instanta- 
neously see, not only that Bellarmine does not teach 
the doctrine which you ascribe to the church, but 
that he holds the direct reverse of it to be an ac- 
knowledged and indubitable truth. He states a 
proposition; controverts it; and professes to prove 

* Liber iv. c. 5, de Decretis Morum, torn. 1. p. 721, 
ed. Lugdun. fol. 1596, And see in the same volume, p. 393, 
394. 789, 790, where he notices the doctrine, that the 
" pope is lord of the world." 



128 APPELLATIONS OF [Letter 

it^ erroneousness, by showing, that if it were true, 
it would authorize the pope to make virtue vice, 
" and vice virtue." Thus you will find that the 
proposition, which you impute to Bellarmine, is 
considered by him to be such a perfect absurdity, 
and so clear and acknowledged a falsehood, that 
a proposition leading to it, or from which it would 
follow as a consequence, must partake of its nature, 
and become absurd and false. Is not therefore 
the doctrine of the rom an -catholics diametrically 
contrary to your representation of it ? 

A little further you say, that *' the commeniators 
" even gave the pope the blasphemous appellation 
" of OUR LORD GOD THE POPE." Two hundred 
years ago this charge was brought against the com- 
mentators, and two hundred years ago it was tri- 
umphantly refuted. You probably have copied it, 
at first or second hand, from the Glossa final, cap. 
cum inter Ea^tra. Joan. xxii. Father Eudaemon 
Joannes, in his Apology for Father Garnet, pub- 
lished in 1610, informs us, that, " in the passage 
" in question, he found the word Deum, (God), 
" in some editions of the Gloss, and omitted in 
"others; that he therefore resolved to consult 
the Zenzelini manuscript at the Vatican, which," 
he says, might be seen every day and " that 
" he found that the real reading was, dominum 

" NOSTRUM PAPAM," — OUR LORD THE POPE. 

After this explanation, you will assuredly agree 
with me, that there is not greater reason to charge 
the commentators on the Corpus Juris Canonici^ 



X.] PAPAL AUTHORITY. , 129 

with giving to the pope the appellation of God^ 
than to charo^e the church of En^fland with lescal- 
izing adultery, because, in some copies of the 
English Bible, the word " not" is omitted in the 
commandment against adultery. 

In the same work, Bellarmine notices the propo- 
sition, that " the pope is lord of all the world/' 
I presume you have this proposition in view, when 
you say, that *'the romanists claimed for the pope 

a plenitude of power ; that he exercised it over 
" the princes of Christendom, in its fullest mean- 
" ing ; that he was king of kings, and lord of 
" lords." The proposition, in the words I have 
mentioned, is propounded, discussed, and i^efuted 
by Bellarmine. In fact, it is so absurd a proposi- 
tion, as to make a refutation of it an almost total 
waste of time. Are you ignorant that it is rejected 
as the extreme of error, not to say, as the extreme 
of nonsense or impiety, by a countless number of the 
most eminent catholic writers ? How many works, 
for asserting it, or propositions approaching to it, 
have been publicly censured ? How many, as those 
of Santarellus and Malagola, have been condemned, 
in catholic countries, in the strongest terms of repro- 
bation? Upon what ground, therefore, can you 
impute the affirmance of the proposition, thus, by 
them universally scouted, to the roman-catholics ? 
At all events, justice required that you should name 
the authors in whose writings the propositions, you 
thus hold out to abomination, are to be found. 
I suspect that, if you were to do this, it would be 

K 



130 . PAPAL AUTHORITY. [Letter 

very generally seen, that the expressions in question 
were used by them, though in a very bad taste, to 
describe the supreme spiritual power of the church, 
and of the pope as her spiritual head, to govern all 
the faithful in spiritual concerns, and to control 
all the refractory, by spiritual censures, ending at 
last in excommunication. If this be so, do roman- 
catholics claim more power for their church, than 
is claimed by the protestants for theirs ? Do not 
the ministers of your church claim the power of 
excommunication ? To this, are not all its mem- 
bers, whether kings, lords, or subjects, equally 
liable ? Does not every stone, that you thus throw 
at our church, equally hit your own ? 

Do the words, which you have cited from our 
authors, import more than this ? If they do not, are 
not your own writers equally blameabie ? Think 
of the doctrines of your venerated WicklifFe ; 
of your other venerated reformers of the middle 
ages ; think of the primitive reformers ; think of 
the extreme doctrines and extreme practices of 
Knox: — They incontestibly show, that, in their 
opinion, kings, lords, and subjects, may, if the good 
of the church require it, be punished by excom- 
munication, and even by something beyond it. 

Think of bishop Gibson's complaints of the 
constitutional rights of the temporal courts of 
this kingdom to issue prohibitions to the spiritual 
courts ; of his intimation, that parliament should 
not meddle with the concerns of religion ; of his 
dislike of the court of Delegates ; of his objection to 



X] PAPAL AUTHORITY. 131 

lay chancellors, lay commissaries, and other lay 
officials in spiritual courts ; of his exalted notions 
of the force of canons promulgated by the church ; 
of his wish that no acts of parliament, respecting 
religion, should be passed, unless they were pre- 
viously submitted to the clergy, and had their 
approbation ; of his lamentation, that ecclesiastical 
process is served in the name of the king *. Is the 
spirit which suggested these complaints, objections, 
dislikes, and lamentations, in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, very different from the spirit of the advocates 
of the independence of the clergy of the civil power, 
in the middle ages ? 

In another part of your present chapter, you 
mention that there were ambassadors " who pro- 
" strated themselves before the pope, saying, ' O 

thou! who takest away the sins of the world, 

have mercy upon us!"' Perhaps you are in- 
debted for this story to Foulis. Even that most 
violent author intimates what you wholly omit, 
that the pope resiled from the salutation. Paulus 
Emilius^ on whose credit the tale rests altogether, 
relates, that the " city of Palermo, having grievously 
" offended the pope, sent some holy men to him as 

ambassadors, who prostrated themselves at his 

" feet, AND SALUTED ChRIST THE LaMB OF GoD, 

" as before an altar and the blessed sacrament, and 
" suppliantly pronounced the mystic words of the 
" altar, ' Lamb of God, who takest away the sins 



* See the preface to his Codex. 
K 2 



132 PAPAL AUTHORITY. [Letter 

of the world, have mercy on usl Who takest 
away the sins of the world, have mercy on us 1 
" Who takest away the sins of the world, give us 
*' peace/ The pope replied by telling them, that 
" they acted like those who, after they had struck 
" Christ, saluted him as King of the Jews; that, 
" in reality, they were his enemies, although in 
" these words they v^^ished him health." I tran- 
scribe in a note the historian's text*. Permit me 
to observe to you, that much of your charge is 
unfounded. You describe the ambassadors as ad- 
dressing the pope as Lamb of God ; the historian 
describes them as addressing Christ, the Lamb of 
God : You leave your readers to suppose that it was 
a mere matter of ceremony; the historian informs 
us, that it was an appeal made in a moment of great 
distress to the feelings of the pope, by bringing to 
his mind the supplicatory address in the mass to 
Christ the Lamb of God : You leave your readers 
to suppose that the address was favourably received ; 

* " Cum apud pontificem de Iiac consternatione agerefur, 
" a Panormitanis missos ad eum oratores, viros sanctos ; qui 
" ad pedes iilius strati, velut pro ara hostiaque, christum 
AGNUM DEI SALUTAKTES, ilia etiam ex altaris mysteriis 
verba supplices efFarentur, — " Qui tollis peccata mundi mise- 
rere nostri : — Qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nostri : — 
" Qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem. Pontificem 
" respondisse, Panormitanos agere quod fecissent qui cum 
" Christum pulsarent, eundem regem judseorum salutabant, 
re hostes, fando salvere jubentes." Paiili Emilii Veronefisis 
Historici Clarissimi, De rebus gesiis Francorum. Liber x. 
Chronicon de iisdem regibus ex Pharamundo usque ad Henri' 
cum ii. foL 328. 



X.] PAPAL AUTHORITY. 133 

the historian shows that it was indignantly re- 
jected. 

You must excuse me for believing, that, if I had 
the command of more time, and a greater library 
than falls to my lot, I might discover other inac- 
curacies in the present chapter of your work. Be 
that as it may, permit me to request you will say, 
if you conscientiously believe that there is now a 
single catholic, who can justly be charged with the 
monstrous and blasphemous doctrines with which 
you attempt in this part of your work to brand us. 
Think of the Gallican declaration in 1682, which, 
so far as respects the independence of the secular on 
the spiritual power, in temporal concerns, is recog- 
nized by the whole roman-catholic world; — think 
of the opinions of the foreign universities, obtained 
by the direction of Mr. Pitt; — think of the oaths 
taken by the English, the Irish, and the Scottish 
catholics; — think of their conduct; — then declare 
explicitly, whether as a man, as a gentleman, or as 
a christian, you can, fairly and honourably, thus 
malign us ? 

I shall close this letter by a transcription of the 
following publication I hope it will vindicate us, 
in the opinion of all its readers, from the charges 
to which it refers. 



K 3 



134 



CHARGES AGAINST [Letter 



X. 6. 

5. — Defence, hy a Roman-catholic Divine, of the Roman- 
catholic Church against Charges brought against her 
by the present Bishop of Winchester. 

In the life of Mr. Pitt, recently published by- 
doctor Tomline, the bishop of Winchester, a short 
account is given of the passing of the act of 1791, 
for the relief of the English roman-catholics ; it oc- 
casioned considerable surprise among the catholics, 
and produced, from a secular clergyman of their com- 
munion, the following letter to his lordship : — 

My Lord, 

" In your lordship's Memoirs of the Life of Mr. 
Pitt, vol. 2, p. 400, occurs the following passage : 

" A petition had been presented to the House 
" of Commons, on the 7th of May 1 789, by certain 

persons calling themselves catholic dissenters, im- 
" plying by that title, that they did not believe all 

the tenets generally maintained by roman-catho- 

lies. The petitioners stated, that they and other 
" papists were subject to various penal laws, on ac- 
" count of principles, which they were supposed to 
" entertain, dangerous to society, and totally repug- 

nant to political and civil liberty, and therefore 

they thought it due to their country and to them- 
** selves publicly to disclaim and protest against the 

five following doctrines: — i. That princes ex- 
" communicated by the pope, or by any authority 



X.] ROMAN-CATHOLICS. VSB 

** of tlie see of Rome, may be deposed or murdered 
" by their subjects or other persons : — 2. That mi- 
" piicit obedience is due to the orders and decrees 
of popes and general councils, even if they re- 
*^ quire open resistance to government, the subver- 
*^ sion of the laws and liberties of the country, and 
" the extermination of all persons not professing 
*' the roman-catholic religion : — 3. That the pope, 
" by his spiritual power, can dispense with the ob- 
** ligation of any compact or oath : — 4. That not 
only the pope, but even a priest has power, at his 
will and pleasure, to pardon sins, and, conse- 
quently, can absolve from the guilt of perjury, 
rebellion and high treason : — 5. That faith is 
" not to be kept with heretics 

* These five doctrines are to be found in the decrees 
*' of councils, and other authentic documents of the church of 
" Rome, and have always been considered as forming part of 
the faith of papists." Note in the Bishops Life of Mr, Pitt. 

" Allow me to observe, my lord, that the account 
given above, so far from being accurate, contains 
a gross misrepresentation, which, from respect to 
your lordship, I am willing to believe is not a wilful 
one. It is true, that the petitioners in 1789 styled 
themselves catholic dissenters. It is equally true, 
that many catholics objected to the title assumed by 
the petitioners; and for this reason, that they con- 
ceived the term dissenters to be appropriate to those 
who deserted the antient faith in the sixteenth 
century, not to such as were inheritors of it in the 
present times. But no thinking man before your 
K 4 



136 CHARGES AGAINST [Letter 

lordship ever insinuated, that the petitioners were 
dissenters from other catholics, in respect to the 
doctrines against which they protested. 

Neither did the petitioners insinuate, that the 
tenets which they disclaimed were maintained by 
any other catholics whomsoever : They knew in- 
deed that such tenets had been imputed to other 
catholics, as well as to themselves ; but as they were 
petitioning for themselves only, they confined the 
disclaimer to themselves. 

Tt is not, however, of these inaccuracies, but of 
the note which follows them, that the catholics 
chiefly complain The statement in that note is 
not only erroneous in point of fact, but is calculated 
to make on the public mind an impression most 
injurious to their interests, by representing them 
as members of a church which inculcates, as part 
of its faith,'' doctrines subversive of civil alle- 
giance and moral duty ; doctrines not to be tole- 
rated by any government, nor in any society. On 
what this representation may be grounded, few 
readers of the Memoirs will stay to inquire ; they 
will adopt it as true on the authority of the writer. 

The catholics deny that the five doctrines in 
question ever formed part of their faith. They 
challenge your lordship to prove your assertion ; 
they call on you to produce, if you can, the de- 
" crees of councils, and the authentic documents of 
the church of Rome, in which they are to be 
found." If you cannot, they trust you will have 

* See note quoted in preceding page. 



X] ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 137 

the courage to come forward, and with the honesty 
of a man, and the charity of a christian, acknow- 
ledge that you have been misled. 

Your lordship says, that these five doctrines 
have always been considered as forming part of the 
" faith of papists but by whom? — by catholics ? 
Most certainly not ^ they have always disclaimed 
them. By their adversaries? But you must be 
aware that little credit is due to adversaries, espe- 
cially when the passions of those adversaries have 
been heated, and their judgments warped, by 
theological controversy. 

" But what is the meaning of the words " have 
" always been ?" They seem to imply, that the 
doctrines in question were not only considered 
formerly^ but are also considered now, as making- 
part of the catholic faith. It is however impossible 
that so unfounded a notion can exist at the present 
day. Your lordship cannot be ignorant, that, in 
1788, the catholic universities of Louvain, Douay, 
Paris, Alcala, Valladolid and Salamanca, when 
those learned bodies were consulted to satisfy Mr. 
Pitt, spurned the imputation as most foul, false and 
calumnious. You cannot be ignorant that, in 1791, 
Pius VI., in his letter to the roman-catholic arch- 
bishops of Ireland, not only condemned these doc- 
trines, but declared that they had been imputed to 
the holy see merely for the purpose of calumniating 
it*. You cannot be ignorant, that the British and 

* See substance of Sir John Cox Hippesley's speech, 
May 18, 1810. Appendix. 



im CHARGES ANSWERED. [Letter X. 

Irish catholics seized the first opportunity, which 
was offered to them, of disclaiming such doctrines 
upon oath. You cannot be ignorant, that that very 
oath had been prescribed by the legislature, as 
satisfactory evidence of the religious principles of 
those who should take it. — What better proof can 
be desired or devised ? The declaration of the 
chief bishop of the catholic church, the testimony 
of the catholic universities, the oaths of the catho- 
lics, both laity and clergy, of the united kingdom, 
and the authority of the legislature, all combine to 
show, that these five doctrines form no part of the 
catholic faith. Certainly the most obstinate pre- 
judice must yield to evidence so general and con- 
clusive. 

" I have the honor to be, &c. 
"London, June 12, 1821. A Catholic." 



139 



LETTER XL 

RISE OF THE REFORMATION THE MENDICANT 

ORDERS — PERSECUTION UNDER THE HOUSE OF 
LANCASTER. 

SIR, 

YOU have now reached a subject, upon which 
I wish you had given us a vohime, instead of a 
chapter, — the preliminaries of Luther's reforma- 
tion. In Germany, they are often styled Refor- 
matio ante Reformationem, It is intimated, in the 
preface to Beausobre's History of the Reforma- 
" tion/' that he had written a work on this subject : 
I have made many inquiries for it, both in the 
London and the foreign markets, without success. 
A good account of this portion of ecclesiastical 
history is one of the greatest wants of literature. 

It is known, that, on the death of Manes, the 
founder of the heresy which derives its origin and 
name from him, his European followers retreated 
into the East ; that they returned into Europe 
about the beginning of the ninth century ; and, 
during that and the following centuries, spread 
themselves, under the various appellations of Ca- 
thari, Paulicians, Albigenses, Popellicans, Bogards, 
and Brethren of the Free Spirit, into several sects, 
equally hostile to church and state. 

On the religious tenets of the ancient Manichees, 



140 RISE OF [Letter 

Beausobre *, doctor Lardner t, and Mr. Alban 
Butler :[:, have left us nothing to desire. But, in 
respect to their tenets on civil power and property, 
these authors are almost entirely silent. The reli- 
gious tenets of the Manichean sectaries, in the 
middle ages, have been ably discussed by Bossuet ll, 
father Persons §, Mr. Alban Butler and Bas- 
nage ^* ; but these writers have said little on their 
political tenets. I beg leave to mention, that those, 
who desire to investigate this subject, should con- 
sult MonetcE adversus Catharos et Valdenses, 
libri quinque,foL Romce^ 1743- 

I wish you to undertake this investigation ; but 
I fear you could not complete it, in the manner 
you and your friends would wish, without ransack- 
ing foreign libraries. The great point for investi- 
gation is, whether these sectaries did not, by their 
disorganizing tenets, prelude to the doctrine of 
liberty and equality, so frightfully propagated in 
our time? 

* Histoire Critique de Manichee et de Manicheisrae: 
3 vols. 4to. 

t Credibility of the Gospel History, xliii. 
J Note in his Life of St^ Augustine, 
jl Variations, livre xii. 

§ Three Conversions of England, part iii. c. 3. 6. 

«[ Note in his Life of St. Doniinick. 

** Hist, des Eglises Reformces, 2 vols. 4to. 



XI.] 



THE REFORMATION. 



141 



XL 1. 

Rise of the Reformation — Persecution under the House of 
Lancaster. 

When I inserted, in my Historical Memoirs 
" of the English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics/' 
an account of " the preliminaries of the reforma- 
" tion I gave to the subject all the attention, 
and made every research, that the time, which 
I could bestow upon it, allowed. I have frequently 
reconsidered this part of my work, and have not 
discovered any thing which appears to me to require 
alteration. 

I shall, therefore, now re-state what I have 
inserted in that work, — the opinion of Mosheim t, 
that, " before the Reformation, there lay concealed, 
" in almost every part of Europe, particularly in 
" Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and Germany, 
many persons who adhered tenaciously to the 
following doctrine, which the Waldenses, Wick- 
" liffites, and Hussites, had maintained ; some in 
" a disguised, others in a more open and public 
manner : — that the kingdom of Christ was an 
assembly of true and real saints, and ought, 
" therefore, to be inaccessible to the wicked and 
" unrighteous, and also, exempt from those institu- 
tions which human prudence suggests, to oppose 

* Vol. 1, p. 93. 

t Cent. xvi. c. 3. 5. 2. 5. 



142 LOLLARDS. [Letter 

" the progress of iniquity, or to correct or reform 
" transgressions." 

" From these principles they inferred, that all 
" things ought to be in common among the faith- 
" ful ; that taking interest for the loan of money 
" ought to be entirely abolished; that, in the king- 
" dom of Christ, civil magistrates were absolutely 
" useless ; and that God still continued to reveal 
" his will to chosen men.'' In a future part of this 
letter, I shall transcribe, from the chapter of your 
work, which is the subject of this letter, passages 
which completely accord with that which I have 
cited from Mosheim, 

Such were tJie principles of these sectaries. How 
did they carry them into execution? Confining the 
answer to the English Lollards,— What insurrec- 
tions, what rapine, what murders, were produced by 
them ! They murdered the chancellor, and pri- 
mate, Sudbury ; the lord treasurer Hales ; the chief 
justice Cavendish: They sought to murder the 
king ; to exterminate the nobility, the dignitaries, 
and the principal functionaries of the clergy. 
" The celebrated John Ball," says Walsingham 
" taught the perverse dogmas, and false opinions, 
" and raving doctrines of Wickliffe. Being, upon 
" this account, prohibited by his bishop from preach- 
" ing in the churches, he went to villages and towns 
" to preach to them. He was excommunicated : 
" but ventured to preach, and was sent to prison, 



* Walsingham, p. 275. 228. 385. 



XI.] LOLLARDS. 143 

where he announced his immediate delivery by 
20,000 men. This actually happened; and, 
" having deliberated with them, he headed them, 
instigating them to greater enormities. At 
" Blackheath, where 20,000 men were assembled, 
" he thus began his address to them : 

When Adam delv'd, and Eve span, 
" Who was then the gentleman ? 

" They fixed placards on the doors of the churches 
" of London, announcing that they were ready, to 

the number of 100,000, to rise against all who 
" did not relish them. To this they were invited 

by the power and contrivance of one John Old- 
*' castle." In the following year they endeavoured 
to raise a rebellion in St. Giles's Fields, where 
Oldcastle had appointed them to rendezvous. — Se- 
ditious proceedings of a similar nature took place, 
about the same time, in different parts of England. 

The Albigenses, in the south of France, ex- 
ceeded the Lollards, both in the wildness of their 
doctrine, and the ferocity of their proceedings. 

Such, then, were the principles of the sectarians, 
and such the enormities to which they led. You 
yourself admit, that WicklifFe held " some erro- 
" neous opinions, some fantastic ones, and some 

that, in their moral and political consequences, 

were most dangerous." (We have just seen what 
Walsingham says of Wickliffe and his doctrines). 
Is it not surprising that, almost in the line imme- 
diately following, you call him " a great and admi- 

rable man." Is not this exaggerated eulogy ? 



144 LOLLARDS. [Letter 

Should a man be pronounced great and admirable, 
some of whose opinions are admitted to have been 
" erroneous," some to have been " fantastic," and 
some to have been " most dangerous?" Should it 
be done in this age, where liberty and equality, in 
the disorganizing sense of those words, are so 
louldly called for, and the loudness of the call 
increases every day ? In respect to the tenets of 
the Lollards, I beg leave to ask, if contemporary 
writers do not unanimously declare, that they ori- 
ginated with WicklifFe ? Should you not have 
mentioned with praise, the christian spirit and for- 
bearance of the clergy of those times, who, although 
he had so vehemently attacked both their doctrines 
and their possessions, permitted him to spend his 
last days in peace and privacy ? 

I have shortly mentioned the dreadful effects 
produced by these dangerous opinions. To pre- 
vent them from spreading, the legislature, in the 
reign of Henry IV. had passed the statute de 
Hceretico comhurendo : It authorized the bishop 
to proceed against heretics, and to punish them by 
imprisonment, and fine to the king ; and enacted, 
that, if they should refuse to abjure their heretical 
pravity, or, after their abjuration, should relapse 
into it, they should be delivered to the sheriff, and 
burned on a high place, before the people. This 
statute was succeeded by others. You cannot 
condemn these legislative proceedings more than 
I do : they were an infraction of the rights of con- 
science; they made religious opinion a test of 



XL] LOLLARDS. 145 

political principle ; and thus confounded principle, 
with which the legislature has no concern, with 
action, its only proper object. 

Under these statutes many suffered. Your ac- 
count of their sufferings is drawn with admirable 
eloquence and feeling. 

I sympathize in what you write ; and trust that, 
when I shall hereafter mention the sufferings of the 
roman-catholics, under the reigns of Henry VIIL 
Edward VI. Elizabeth, and the three first princes 
of the Stuart line, you will read those pages with 
equal sympathy. 

Before I conclude my letter, I beg leave to ex- 
press some surprise at the tenderness with which 
you treat Sir John Oldcastle, often called Lord 
Cobham. You describe him as a victim ; and, 
when you come to his final catastrophe, you tell us, 
that *' the remainder of his history is perplexed by 

contradictory statements, from which nothing 
" certain can be collected, but the last results." 
Is this so ? Had not his practices with the Lol- 
lards, in their most revolutionary designs, and his 
encouragement of them, been discovered? Had 
he not defied the process of the spiritual courts ? 
Had not Henry V. declared in his proclama- 
tion, that the Lollards meant to destroy him, his 
brothers, and several of the spiritual and temporal 
lords ? to confiscate the possessions of the church ; 
to secularize the religious orders; to divide the 
realm into confederate districts ; and to appoint Sir 
John Oldcastle president of the commonwealth ? 

L 



I 



146 LOLLARDS. [Letter 

On his arraignment, did he venture to assert his 
innocence ? Did he not deny the king's title to 
the crown ? Did not the sentence pronounced upon 
him, declare, that he should both be hanged as 
a traitor, and burned as a heretic ? It is almost 
ridiculous to ask, — did he not impiously prophecy, 
that he should rise on the third day ? Surely you 
do not concur with a notorious writer, whom you 
often praise, John Fox, the martyrologist, who 
ranks several of these convicted rebels among his 
saints ! 

If it were allowed by the proper limits of these 
Letters, I should have offered you some consider- 
ations on the Waldenses, Albigenses, and the Huss- 
ites ; on some decrees of the council of Constance ; 
and on the inquisition, with which the subject is 
connected. I have expressed myself fully on all 
these topics, in the chapter of my Flistorical Me- 
moirs on the Preliminaries of the Reformation^. 
It was written with care, and I trust with impar« 
tiality : I beg leave to refer you to it. 

In one part of your present chapter, you inform 
us, " that indignation against spiritual tyranny, un- 

compromising sincerity, and intrepid zeal, made 
" the Lollards formidable to the hierarchy.'' Most 
protestant writers describe them in the same tone 
of lofty eulogy ; but do they convey the whole 
truth ? How do you yourself afterwards describe 
them in this very chapter ^ 

Undoubtedly the Lollards," say you, " were 
* Vol. 1, c. 10. 



XI.] LOLLARDS. 147 

highly dangerous at this time : if there were 
*' some among them, whose view and wishes did not 
^' go beyond a just and salutary reformation, the 
" greater number were eager for havoc, and held 

opinions which were incompatible with the peace 
** of society. They would have stript the monas- 
" teries ; confiscated the church lands ; and pro- 
" claimed the principle, ' that the saints should 
*^ possess the earth.' The public safety required, 
" that such opinions should be repressed ; and, 

founded, as they were, in gross error, and leading 
" to direct and enormous evil, the church would 
^* have deserved the approbation of impartial pos- 
" terity, if it had proceeded temperately and justly 
" in repressing them. But the course which the 
" church pursued, was equally impolitic and iniqui- 
" tous, by making transubstantiation the test of 
" heresy ; and insisting, on pain of the stake, upon 
" the belief of a proposition, which no man could 

believe, unless he disregarded the evidence of his 
^* senses ; they gave the Lollards all the advantage, 

which men derive from the reputation and the 
" merit of suffering in the cause of truth." 

In this sentence, I cannot but dislike the manner 
in which you mention transubstantiation ; and be- 
lieving, that, on the occasions of which you are 
speaking, the judges frequently acted from errors 
of judgment, or in moments of exaltation, I wish 
you had substituted some other word for ^* iniqui- 
" tous — With these exceptions, I subscribe to it 
in all parts. 

L 2 



148 RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [Letter 

But permit me to observe, that you cannot cri- 
minate the judges, who condemned the Lollards 
for not believing transubstantiation, without con- 
demning the laws, which, in subsequent times, 
condemned the catholics for believing it, or con- 
forming to those religious rites, which they found 
established, and which had made a part of the 
constitution, both of the church and state, of 
England, from the earliest introduction of Chris- 
tianity till their own time. I shall advert to this 
circumstance in a future letter. When you read 
it, you will, I hope, join me in a tear of sympathy 
on the sufferings, both of the priests and their 
flocks, for their belief of transubstantiation. Even 
now, do you not sympathize with the roman-catholic 
peers, the Howards, the Talbots, the Stourtons, 
the Arundells, the Cliffords, and the Petres, who, 
in consequence of their belief of transubstantiation, 
are deprived of their hereditary seats in Parlia- 
ment? 

XL 2. 

The Mendicant and other Religious Orders of the 
Roman-catholic Church. 

In your perusal of the gospel, you must have 
remarked the words, " If thou desire to be perfect, 
" go, and sell all thou hast, and give it to the 
" poor*." — If any man come after me, let him 

deny himself t."-— " It is a good thing not to 



* Matt. xix. 



t Matt. xvi. 



XL] RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 140 

" touch a woman." — " He who gives his virgin in 
" marriage does well, but he who gives her not 
does better/' — Is it not with justice that the 
rom an -catholic church considers these intimations, 
not as precepts, the observance of which is neces- 
sary to salvation, but as counsels to those, who, to 
use the words of Christ himself, desire to be perfect ? 
Do they not imply, that a voluntary renunciation 
of riches, a voluntary renunciation of our will, and 
a voluntary renunciation of sensual, but lawful 
pleasure, are acceptable to God ? Do we not imi- 
tate, by the first, the voluntary poverty of our holy 
Redeemer?— by the second, his voluntary obedience 
to the will of his Eternal Father, and to the will of 
his Virgin Mother? — by the third, his immaculate 
purity ? To this humble imitation of Christ, the 
mendicant and the other religious orders of the 
catholic church aspire ; and their different rules 
prescribe different modes, suited to the various cha- 
racters and tempers of mankind, of carrying these 
councils into execution. In what age of the church 
were not such observances practised ? In what, 
have they not been praised by the wise and the 
good ? 

The services, which the Benedictines have ren- 
dered to religion and literature, are mentioned by 
an author, not unknown to you, in terms, which I am 
delighted to read, and which T shall transcribe with 
pleasure in the fifteenth of these Letters. 

In the 8th century, certain respectable ecclesias- 
tics formed themselves into a kind of middle order^ 

L 3 



130 RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [Letter 

between the monks and the secular clergy, aiid, by 
degrees, obtained the appellation of the regular 
canons of St. Augustine^ from their observance of 
the rules and suggestions laid down by that great 
man in his Epistles. They kept public schools for 
the instruction of youth, and exercised themselves 
in a variety of functions, which rendered them 
extremely useful to the church. 

For many ages, the Benedictines, and the con- 
gregations which emanated from them, and the 
canons regulars of St. Augustine, constituted the only 
religious orders in the West ; but, in the 1 2th cen- 
tury, the mendicant orders arose : these were the 
Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, and 
the hermits of St. Augustine. You confine your 
vituperations to the Franciscans and the Domini- 
cans; I shall, therefore, say nothing of the two 
other mendicant orders. 

As to the Franciscans,— let me conjure you to 
collect the testimony, not of the ribald press, not 
of superficial travellers, not of philosophic witlings, 
but of impartial, intelligent, and honourable men ; 
and, I beg leave to add, of the catholic prelacy ; for, 
after all, these form the best tribunal to which the 
question can be referred. Ask these, what they 
thought of the friars? They will answer unani- 
mously, — that their services to the church of God 
were incalculable ; that they chiefly exerted them- 
selves in the laborious parts of the sacred ministry, 
in hospitals, in prisons, among the lower orders of 
the poor; that wherever there was a fire, an inun- 



XL] RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 151 

dation, a pestilential disorder, a raging plague ; 
wherever there was labour, or danger, and a total 
absence of reward, the Franciscans were sure* to be 
found. But it was not only in the humbler walks 
of the ministry that they laboured: many were 
eminent for their learning; many filled the highest 
dignities of the church; many were successfully 
employed in the most important embassies ; some 
have governed states ; some have w^orn the tiara. 

To this, what have you to oppose? — Some legends 
and tales, which the friars laugh at as much as you 
do; and some narratives, which eminent writers 
have thought respectable, although you think of 
them differently. You deride the stigmata-. — it 
would give me great pleasure to hear the verity of 
them coolly and argumentatively discussed by you, 
and some learned member of the seraphic order. — 
I must assure you, that you would not find it so 
easy a matter, as you imagine, to nonplus him ; 
and that, if you had fought the battle with my late 
friend, father O'Leary, you might not have fared 
with him better than the bishop of Cloyne, who 
quarrelled with him about purgatory, and to whom 
he observed, that " his lordship might go farther, 
** and fare worse." 

Most of what I have said on the Franciscans 
applies to the Dominicans ; but with this differ- 
ence, — that these exerted themselves in a particular 
manner, in public preaching, and in teaching the 
philosophical and theological learning of the schools. 
You are one of the few, whom I can expect to 

L 4 



152 RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [Letter 

find equal admirers, with myself, of the mental 
powers of St. l^homas Aquinas, Do I exaggerate, 
when 1 say, that his writings discover a strength of 
mind equal, (though applied in a very different 
manner), to that of Sir Isaac Newton ? Is there 
an objection urged by Hume, against natural or 
revealed religion, which St. Thomas has riot both 
propounded and answered ? How pleasing would 
it be to dwell on such a topic! — You charge 
St. Dominick with taking an active part in the 
establishment of the inquisition. This is positively 
denied by Touron, his best biographer ; and, I be- 
lieve, by every other writer of his order. Their 
zealous denial of it does them honour : from its 
origin, till the close of the i yth century, the con- 
stitution and proceedings of that tribunal were 
very objectionable. 

But, let us return to the religious orders. — At 
different times, convents of nuns were founded: 
their institutes corresponded with those of the re - 
ligious orders and congregations, which we have 
noticed. You are extensively acquainted with his- 
tory, and have travelled in catholic countries; you, 
therefore, know what thousands of these venerable 
ladies were employed in the important duty of 
education : that, from an early aera of Christianity 
till the present time, it has been an universal 
opinion, that no education for the female sex is 
equal to that which they receive in convents. You 
know the heroic exertions among the poor, the 
sick, and the prisoners? of those angels upon earthy 



XL] RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 153 

the sisters of charity^ and the pious lives and 
penitential austerities of the recluses. You also 
know, that, when the hour of trial came, the con- 
duct of the nuns was uniformly edifying ; on every 
occasion they exhibited the greatest patience, forti- 
tude, and adherence to principle. The French 
philosophers had unceasingly predicted, that the 
doors of the convents would no sooner be opened, 
and their inmates legally emancipated from their 
vows, than they would rush to freedom, marriage, 
and dissipation. Of this there was hardly an in- 
stance ; whilst the conduct of an immense number 
invariably showed, how sincerely they despised, 
both the blandishments and the terrors of the 
world which they had quitted. Some braved perse- 
cution, and even death itself, in its most hideous 
form : On one occasion, the fatal cart conveyed 
the superior of a convent, and all her cloisteral 
family, to the guillotine: in the road to it they 
sung, in unison, the litanies of the Virgin Mary. 
At first, they were received with curses, ribaldry, 
and the other usual abominations of a French mob ; 
but it was not long before the serene demeanor 
and pious chaunt of these heroic sufferers, sub- 
dued the surrounding brutality; and the multitude 
attended them, in respectful silence, to the place of 
execution. — The cart moved slowly: all the while 
the nuns continued the pious strain j — when it had 
reached the guillotine, each, till the instrument 
of death fell on her, sustained it. — As each died, 
the sound became proportionably weaker; at last. 



154 CANDID AVOWALS [Letter 

the superior's single note was heard, and soon heard 
no more. For once, the French mob was affected : 
in silence, and apparently with some compunctious 
visitations, they returned to their homes. 

Throughout their dispersion, the nuns retained, 
undiminished, their attachments to their religious 
rule ; whenever opportunity offered, they formed 
themselves into bands for its observance, and the 
insulated individual seldom failed to practise it to 
the utmost of her power. Sometimes, by succes- 
sion or heirship, or by some other circumstance, 
wealth came in their way; but their spare diet, 
their seclusion from the world, and regular prayer 
continued ; and what was not necessary to supply 
their wants of the first necessity, was charitably 
distributed.- — Was it not good for a nation, that 
such celestial beings should reside among them ? 

In this stage of our controversy, it may not be 
improper to make what, in mercantile transactions, 
is termed a rest; and thus show, as it were on a 
balance sheet which side, in the actual state of the 
account between us, has the preponderance. You 
sum your charge in these words: " The church of 
" Rome appears to have delighted in abusing the 
" credibility of mankind, and to have pleased itself 

with discovering, how far it was possible to sub- 
" due and degrade the human intellect, as an 
" eastern despot measures his own greatness by the 

servile prostration of his subjects. 



XI.] OF ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 155 

In the beginning of the chapter which contains 
this sentence, you inform your readers, that the 
" corruptions, doctrinal and practical, of the roman 
" church, were studiously kept out of view by the 

writers, who still maintain the infallibility of that 
" church." 

Are you, then, acquainted with no writers in the 
middle ages, who, at the same time that they main- 
tained the infallibility of the roman-catholic church 
in matters of faith, exposed, in the strongest terms, 
and the most unequivocal language, the corruptions 
which had found their way into her, and even into her 
sanctuary ? Are you ignorant of the discourses pub- 
lished, and of the sermons preached, at the council 
of Constance, Basil and Pisa ? — of the writings of 
Grossetete, Gersen, d'Ailly, and the many other 
ecclesiastical personages, whose treatises, exposing 
the extortions of the roman see and its officers, and 
the irregularities of the clergy, fill the two well- 
known volumes of *^ Brown's Fasciculus P " Is the 
letter of St. Bernard to pope Eugenius IV. unknown 
to you ? Does it not announce, in the boldest 
language, and with the most glowing eloquence, 
the failings of the popes, and their functionaries, 
and all the corrupt practices which then existed in 
the church ? Was not this letter transcribed, and 
read, and admired, in every part of Christendom ? 

Descending lower, let me request you to peruse 
the following long extract from a later work, — 
a work, not written in a corner, — ^not put into the 
hands of a few, — but written by the eagle of Meaux 5 



156 CANDID AVOWALS [Letter 

anxiously circulated in every part of the globe, and 
particularly addressed to protestants, and designed 
for their perusal, — I mean, the History of the 
Variations of the Protestant Churches, by 
Bossuet. I shall present you with a translation 
of the first section of this great work. After pe- 
rusing it, will you venture to repeat, that the 
roman-catholic writers, who maintain the infalli- 
bility of their church, keep its corruptions out of 
view ? Or that the church, whose writers thus detail 
the corruptions in her, either sought, or seeks, to 
subdue or degrade her subjects, or to prostrate 
their intellects ? 

*' A reformation of church discipline," says Bos- 
suet, ^* was wished for several ages since. * Who 
" mil grant me,' cried St. Bernard, * to see, before 
** / die, the church of God, such as she was in 

primitive times '^P' If this holy man had any 

thing to regret at his death, it was, that he had 
" not seen so happy a change. His whole life 
" long he bemoaned the grievances of the church ; 
" he never ceased giving notice of them to the 
" people, the clergy, the bishops, and popes them- 
** selves : Nor did he conceal his sentiments, on 
" this head, from his own religious, who par- 
** took of his afflictions in their solitude ; and so 
" much the more gratefully extolled the divine 
" goodness, which had drawn them to it, as the 

world was more universally corrupted. Disorders 

* Bern. Epist. 257, ad Eng. Papam. 



XI.] OF ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 157 

" had but augmented since that time. The roman 
church, the mother of churches, which had, for 
" nine whole ages, by setting first the example of 
an exact observance of ecclesiastical discipline, 
" maintained it, throughout the universe, to her 
" utmost power, was not exempt from evil; and 
" so long since as the council of Vienne, sl great 
" prelate, commissioned by the pope to prepare 
matters to be treated upon, laid it down for a 
" groundwork to the whole assembly , that they 
" ought to reform the church in the head and 
members. The great schism, which happened 
soon after, made his saying current, not among 
" particular doctors only, as Gersen, Peter d^Ailly, 
" and other great men of those times, but in coun- 
" cils too; and nothing was more frequently re- 
peated, in those of Pisa and Constance. What 
" happened in the council of Basil, where a refor- 
" mation was unfortunately eluded, and the church 
" re-involved in new divisions, is well known. The 
" disorders of the clergy, chiefly of those in Ger- 
many, were represented in this manner, to 
" Eugenius IV. by cardinal Julian : * Jliese dis- 
orders,' said he, ' ej^cite the people's hatred 
" against the whole ecclesiastical order ; and^ 
should they not be corrected, it is to he feared, 
" lest the laity J like the Hussites, fall foul on the 
clergy, as they loudly threaten us' If the 
clergy of Germany were not speedily reformed, 
he foretold, that to the heresy of Bohemia, even 



CANDID AVOWALS [Letter 

" though it were extinguished, another still more 

dangerous would soon succeed; 'for it will he 
" said,^ proceeded he, ' that the clergy are in- 
" corrigible, and will apply no remedy to these dis- 
" orders. When they shall find no hopes of our 

amendment,^ continued this great cardinal, * then 
" will they fall foul upon us. The minds of men 
" are big with ej^pectations of what measures will 
" be taken \ and full ripe they seem for something 
" tragical! The rancour they have imbibed 

against us becomes manifest-, they will soon 

think it anagreeahle sacrifice to God, to plunder 
" and abuse ecclesiastics, as abandoned to extreme 

disorder, and hateful to God and man ; the pre- 
" sent, but small, remains of respect to the sacred 
" order, will shortly be quite extinguished. The 
" blame of all these abuses will be thrown on the 
" court of Rom£, which will be reckoned the sole 
" cause thereof because it had neglected to apply 
" the necessary remedy/ He afterwards spoke more 
" emphatically: ' / see,' said he, ' the axe is at 
" the root; the tree begins to bend, and instead of 
" propping it, whilst we may, we hasten its fall.' 
" He foresees a speedy desolation in the German 

clergy. The desire of taking from them their 
** temporal goods was to be the first spring of 
" motion. ' Bodies and souls,* says hej * will 
*' perish together. God hides from us the pros- 

pect of our danger, as he is used to do with 
" those he designs to punish. We see the fire 



XL] OF ROMAN CATHOLICS. 159 

enkindled before us, and yet run headlong 
" into it^,^ 

" Thus did this cardinal, the greatest man of 
^' his time, lament, in the fifteenth century, the 
" abuses of those daySj and foresee their dreadful 
" consequences ; whereby he seems to have fore* 
" told those evils, in which Luther was just going 
" to involve all Christendom, beginning by Ger- 

many. Nor was he mistaken, when he fore- 
" boded, that a despised reformation, and redoubled 
" hatred against the clergy, would speedily bring 
" forth a sect more terrible to the church, than 
" that of the Bohemians. Under Luther's banner 
" did this sect appear ; and, assuming the title of 
a reformers, glorified they had fulfilled all Christ- 
" endom's desires, inasmuch as a reformation had 
" been long the desire of catholics, people, doctors, 
" and prelates. In order, therefore, to authorize 

this pretended reformation, whatsoever church- 
" writers had said against the disorders, both of 
" the people, and even of the clergy, was collected 
" with great industry; but in this lay a manifest 

conceit, there not being so much as one of all 

the passages alleged, wherein those doctors ever 
" dreamt of altering the church's faith ; of cor- 
" recting her worship, which chiefly consisted in 
" the sacrifice of the altar; of subverting the au- 
" thority of her prelates, that of the pope espe- 

* Ep. 1, Juliani Cardinalis, ad Eug. iv. int. Opusc. jEneae 
Silvii, p, 66, 68. 76. 



160 CANDID AVOWALS. [Letter 

** cially, — the very scope which this whole reforma- 
" tion, introduced by Luther, tended to. 

" Protestants cite to us St. Bernard who, 
" enumerating the church grievances, — all those 
" she underwent in the beginning during the per- 
" secutions ; those she suffered from heresies in her 
" progress; and those she was exposed unto, in 
" latter days, by the depravation of manners, — 
" allows these to be far more dreadful, because 
" they taint the very vitals, and spread infection 
" through all the members of the church. Whence, 
" concludes this great man, the church may truly 

say, with Isaiah f, ' her most painful and most 
" grievous bitterness is in peace. ^ When left in 
" peace by infidels, and unmolested by heretics, 
" she is most dangerously assaulted by the depraved 

manners of her own children. Even this were 
" enough to show, he does not, like our reformers, 

bewail the errors the church had fallen into, (on 
" the contrary, he represents her as secure on that 
" side), but such evils only as proceeded from re- 
" laxed discipline; accordingly, when, instead of 
" discipline, the church's dogmata were attacked 
** by turbulent and restless men, such as Peter de 
" Bruis, as Henry, as Arnold of Bresse, this 
" great man would never suffer their weakening so 
" much as one of them, but fought invincibly, as 

well for the faith of the church, as for the autho- 
" rity of her prelates t. 

* Bern. Serm. 33, in Cant. f Isaiah, xxxviii. 

{ Bern. Serm. in Cant. 65, 66. 



XL] OF ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 161 

- " The case is the same with the rest of the catho- 
" lie doctors, who, in the succeeding ages, lamented 
abuses, and demanded a reformation of them. Of 
" all these, the most renowned is Gersen ; and none 
"more loudly called for it in the church's head 
" and members. In a sermon he made after the 
council of Pisa, before Alexander v., he intro- 
" duces the church, requesting of the pope the re- 
* ' formation, and a re-establishment of the kingdom 
of Israel, But, to show he complained of no 
error that could be observed in the church's doc- 
trine, he addresses the pope in these words : — 
' Why,' says he, * do you not send to the Indians, 
" whose faith may easily have been corrupted, they 
" not being united to the church of Rome, w^hence 
certainty of faith must be derived* His master, 
cardinal Feter Ailly, sighed also for a refor- 
mation ; but the principle he went upon was far 
" diflPerent from that of Luther, who, writing to 
Melancthon, gives it for a maxim, * that sound 
*' doctrine could not subsist whilst the pope's au- 
thority subsisted t;' whereas this cardinal was of 
opinion J, that the members of the church, being 
" separated from their head during the schism, 
" and there being no administrator and apostolical 
" director, namely, no pope, that all the church 
" acknowledged, it was not to be hoped that a re- 
formation could he well brought about. Thus', 

* Gers. Serm. de Ascensu Dom. ad Al. V. 
t Sleid. lib. vii. fol. 112. 

* Con. i, de San. Lud. 

M 



162 CANDID AVOWALS [Letter 

^* one made the reformation to depend on the sub- 
" version of papacy ; the other, on the perfect re- 
" setting of that sacred authority, which was esta- 
Wished by Jesus Christ, on purpose to keep up 
unity among its members, and withhold all in 
" their secular duties. 

" There were then two different sorts of people, 
who demanded a reformation : One, the truly 
" peaceable, and true children of the church, with- 
out bitterness, bewailed her grievances ; and with 
" respect, proposed a reformation of them, and in 
" humility bore with a delay. And, so far from 
desiring that this might be procured by schism ; 
" on the contrary, they looked upon a schism by 
" far the greatest of all evils. In the midst of 
these abuses, they admired the providence of 
God, who, according to his promises, knew how 
to preserve the church's faith ; and though a re- 
formation of manners seemed denied them, free 
" from all sourness and passion, they held them- 
" selves happy enough, that nothing hindered them 
from beginning at home, and perfectly reforming 
there. These were the strong ones of the church, 
whose faith no temptation could shake, or make 
" them swerve from unity » There was, besides 
" these, a kind of proud spirits, full fraught with 
** spleen and bitterness, who, struck with the dis- 
" orders they saw predominant in the church, espe- 
cially in her ministers, did not believe the pro- 
" mises of her eternal duration could still subsist 
" amidst such abuses ; whereas the Son of God had 



XL] OF ROMAN-CATHOLIdS. 163 

" taught respect to the chair of Moses, notwith- 
" standing the evil actions of the scribes and phari- 

sees that sat therein^. These became proud, and 
*' thereby weak ; they yielded to the temptation 

which, in hatred to those that preside in it, in- 
" clines to hate the chair itself. And, as if man's 

wickedness could make void the work of God, 
" the aversion they had conceived against the 
" teachers, made them both hate the doctrine they 

taught, and the authority they had received from 
" God to teach : Such were the Vandois and 

Albigenses ; such were John Wickliffsmd John 
" Huss. The common lure, by which they en- 
" ticed weak souls into their toils, was this hatred 
" they inspired them with against church pastors. 

And this spirit of bitterness had so thoroughly 

bent them on a rupture, that no wonder if, in 
*' Luther's time, when invectives and animosities 
" were carried to the highest pitch, the most violent 
" rupture, and the greatest apostacy, of course, 
" ensued, that perchance, till then, ever had been 
" seen in Christendom." 

I could have translated, or transcribed, many 
passages from other distinguished writers of our 
church, in which the existence and extent of 
abuses in the roman- catholic church are mentioned, 
in terms equally strong and explicit. I have pre- 
ferred that which I have selected, on account of the 
high character of its author ; and because, while it 



* Matt, xxiii. 2, 3. 
M 2 



164 CANDID AVOWALS [Letter 

abundantly refutes your charge against the roman- 
catholic church, of concealing her abuses, it pro- 
pounds, in the clearest terms, the catholic doctrine 
respecting her infallibility. We admit, that indi- 
vidual members of our church may both err in 
faith, and be guilty of immorality j but we also 
assert, that the church cannot err in faith : this 
infallibility, and this infallibility only, we ascribe 
to her. I must add, that this celebrated work 
of Bossuet, on the Variations of the Protestant 
Churches, from which I have presented you with 
the foregoing extract, was translated into the Eng- 
lish language, by father Browne, of the Society of 
Jesus, for the instruction of the English catholics, 
in 1742, in two octavo volumes : so little do catho- 
lics deserve the imputation of concealment, with 
which you so liberally charge them. 

After perusing the full and unreserved exposure, 
by one of the most eminent and most popular writers 
of the church of Rome, of the abuses which pre- 
vailed in her during the middle ages, you will not, 
I am sure, renew this charge. 

But, while you dilate so much at length, and 
with such evident complacency, on the circum- 
stances which you think disgrace the church of 
Rome, did not justice require you to place, in as 
full a view, and to dwell as much, and as long, on 
those topics, which are honourable to her ? You 
mention some superstitions : Why are you almost 
wholly silent on the edifying scenes, with which 
the history of the church, during the middle ages, 



XI.] OF ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 165 

is replete? the numerous councils held in every 
part of Christendom ? their admirable canons ? their 
regulations for preserving the purity and integrity 
of faith ; for promoting, in every possible manner, 
both the spiritual and temporal welfare of mankind ? 
You mention some persons, whose conduct you de- 
servedly censure : Why did you not also mention 
some, at least, of those holy men, whose heroic vir- 
tues you yourself cannot deny ? You mention 
some ridiculous legends : Why are you wholly 
silent on the writings of the Gerberts, the Ber- 
nards, the Aquinases, the Gersens, the Bacons ? 
Why not mention Thomas a Kempis's golden 
volume? or Thaulerus, of whom Luther, your 
patriarch, speaks in such lofty terms of praise ? 
Why conceal the many institutions for the redemp- 
tion of captives, and for the conversion of barbarians, 
with which the catholic church abounded in the 
times, which you so much vituperate ? her various 
charitable institutions ; her schools ? the count- 
less exertions of individuals for these, and a hun- 
dred other purposes of christian piety or beneficence? 
Should not all and every one of these hold their 
due place in a work, which bears for its title ** the 
"Book of the Church?" Where is that good 
taste, for which you are deservedly admired, when, 
turning aside from these pleasing and glorious 
themes, — from virtues that do honour to man, and 
the relations of which are so productive of useful 
and heroic deeds, you luxuriate in the descriptions 
of those scenes, which Christianity laments, repu- 

M 3 



im CANDID AVOWALS. [Letter XL 

diates, and wishes to be forgotten ? But God never 
abandoned for a moment his church. Involve and 
involve again her disasters : — Make the tares as 
abundant as you wish them to be thought, still 
there never was a time in which the faith of the 
church suffered corruption, or in which the pro- 
mises of God to his church were not verified, by 
the richness and plenty of her harvests. 



LETTER XII. 



HENRY VIII. 

SIR, 

WE now reach the sera of the Reformation : to 
you, a subject of great joy ; to me, a subject of 
deep regret. You dedicate your twelfth chapter 
to its commencement under Henry VIII. 

It is one of the misfortunes of controversy, that 
charges, even of the most serious and offensive kind, 
may be conveyed in a line, or even by a word, 
while pages are necessary to refute them. With 
charges of this nature the Book of the Church" 
abounds in a greater degree than any other work 
which I have met with ; they occur in the present 
chapter more than in any other. All, or even a 
considerable proportion of them, it is utterly im- 
possible for me to discuss ; I am therefore obliged 
to confine myself to such of your general charges 
against us, as appear to me to require particular 
notice. 

Has England been benefited by the reformation 
This is the subject of the letter which I now have 
the honour to address you. I shall inquire whether 
she has gained by it, — I. In temporal happiness j — 
II. In spiritual wisdom; — III. Or in morals? — 
IV. Whether the revival of letters was owing to 
the reformation, or materially promoted by it ? — 

M 4 



168 EFFECTS OF [Letter 

V. Whether the conduct of the religious orders 
called for the dissolution of the monasteries? — 

VI. Whether the church of Rome was negligent 
in remedying the abuses which crept into it? — 

VII. And, whether roman-catholic historical writers 
of the former, or the present times, merit the in- 
discriminate and unqualified abuse, which, certainly, 
without any provocation, you pour upon them. 

XII. 1. 

Has England gained by the Reformation in Temporal 
Happiness? 

Twice did the roman-catholic religion rescue 
the inhabitants of England from paganism. She 
instructed them in the divine truths of the gospel ; 
introduced civilization among them ; was, after the 
Norman Conquest, their only protection against the 
oppressions of their conqueror; and, during a long 
subsequent period, their only defence against the 
tyranny of the barons. To her, you owe your 
magna cJiarta, the important statute de tallagio 
non concedendOy and several other statutes, regu- 
lations and forms, which are the groundwork and 
bulwark of your constitution. A numerous clergy 
administered the rites and blessings of religion; 
numerous portions, both of men and women, whose 
institutes were holy, furnished the young with means 
of education, the old with comfortable retreats, and 
all with opportunities of serving God in honour 
and integrity. Throughout England the roman- 



XIL] THE REFORMATION. 169 

catholic religion only was acknowledged, so that 
the reformation found the whole nation one flock 
under one shepherd. Almost every village con- 
tained a church, to which the faithful, at stated 
hours, regularly flocked, for the celebration of the 
eternal sacrifices, for morning and evening prayer, 
and for exhortation and instruction. In a multi- 
tude of places, the silence of the night was inter- 
rupted by pious psalmody. England was covered 
with edifices raised by the sublimest science, and 
dedicated to the most noble and most salutary pur- 
poses ; commerce prospered ; agriculture, litera- 
ture, every useful and ornamental art and science 
was excellently cultivated, and was in a state of 
gradual improvement. The monarch was illustrious 
among the most illustrious potentates of Europe, 
and held the balance between its preponderating 
princes : his court was splendid; the treasury over- 
flowed with wealth ; there was no debt ; and, (one 
fourth part of the tithes in every place being set 
apart for the maintenance of the poor *), there was 
no poor law. 

Such was the temporal prosperity of England 
when the reformation arrived. Will it suffer on 
a comparison of it with the condition of England 
at any subsequent aera? or even with its present ? 



* Burn's Justice of Peace, title " Poor," sect. L. i . 



170 



EFFECTS OF 



[Letter 



XII. 2. 

Has England gained hy the Reformation in Spiritual 
Wisdom? 

Her great gain, in this respect, is asserted by 
you in every part of the Book of the Church:** 
I shall mention a single fact, then leave yourself ta 
decide on the truth of your own repeated assertion. 

From " the Book of the Church," I conclude 
that you are a sincere believer in the doctrines of 
the established church of England, as they are ex- 
pressed in the thirty-nine articles, — the authentic 
formulary of her faith. You therefore believe all 
that the roman-catholic church believes respect- 
ing the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Divinity of 
Christ, and the Atonement ; but are these doc- 
trines seriously and sincerely believed by the great 
body of the present English clergy? or by the great 
body of the present English laity ? Do not the 
former, to use Mr. Gibbon's expression, sign the 
thirty-nine articles with a sigh, or a smile ? Is a 
sincere and conscientious belief of the doctrines 
expressed in them, generally considered by the 
laity to be a condition for salvation ? 

Indifference to the thirty-nine articles being 
thus universal, or at least very general, among those 
who profess themselves members of the established 
church, must not you, who deem so highly of them, 
admit that, — as the roman-catholic church believes 



XII.] THE REFORMATION. 171 

all that is said in the thirty-nine articles respecting 
the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Divinity of Christ, 
and the Atonement, — there existed when the re- 
formation peered, and all these articles were uni- 
versally believed, more spiritual wisdom in England 
than exists in her at this time, with her present 
scanty creed ? 

Thus the balance, in respect both to temporal 
happiness and spiritual wisdom, now stands; but 
if you look at the period between the first intro- 
duction of the reformation and its present aera, 
what years of havoc, what disputed successions of 
the crown, what wars, what legal murders, what 
demolitions of magnificent edifices, what destruc- 
tions of manuscripts, of printed books, of sacred 
and profane monuments of art ; what proscriptions, 
what confiscations, what calumnies, what imagin- 
ary plots, and what other grinding oppressions, in 
every form, have been often found necessary to ex- 
tirpate the antient creed, and to introduce and 
establish the reformation ! Surely you will acknow- 
ledge that an infinity, both of public and individual 
misery would have been spared to England, if the 
reformation had not been carried to the extent to 
which it was carried: — but, 

" Vicisti ! et victos tendere palmas 

Ausonii videre V Virgil. 

The reformation, and all that is connected with 
it, are now established by law; and never have a 
vanquished people more completely submitted to 
the conquerors, have conducted themselves with 



172 EFFECTS OF [Letter 

greater propriety, or received alleviations of their 
condition with greater gratitude, than the roman- 
catholics have done : none of his majesty's subjects 
are more attached to his government. When we 
think of past grievances, we bless the hands which 
have removed so many of them ; an angry feeling 
seldom rises, except when, as in " the Book of the 
Church," we find our religion traduced, and our 
ancestors vilified in such a manner, that we should 
deservedly be thought either more or less than 
men, if we did not exert ourselves to repel the 
unmerited aggression. 

XII. 3. 

Was the Reformation attended by a general Improvement 
in Morals ? 

The primitive reformers themselves assert the 
contrary : — " We see," says Luther, "that, through 
" the malice of the devil, men are now more avari- 
** cious, more cruel, more disorderly, more insolent, 
" and much more wicked, than they were under 
" popery*." — *^ If any one wish," says Musculus, 
" to see a multitude of knaves, disturbers of the 
" public peace, &c., let him go to a city where the 
" gospel is preached in its purity," (he means a 
reformed city) ; "for it is clearer than the light of 
" the day, that never were pagans more vicious and 
" disorderly than those professors of the gospel f." 
" The thing," says JNIelancthon, " speaks for itself. 

* In Postil. Dom. part 1 ; Dom. 2, Adv. 
t Dom. 1, Adv. 



XII.] THE REFORMATION, 173 

" In this country, among the reformed, their whole 
time is devoted to intemperance and drunkenness, 
** (immanibus pocuUs). So deeply are the people 
sunk into barbarity and ignorance, that many of 
them would imagine they should die in the night, 
" if they should chance to fast in the day 
Neither was this growth of vice and ignorance 
confined to foreign kingdoms. " In this nation," 
says Stubbs t, after he had made the tour of Eng- 
land, I found a general decay of good works, or 
" rather a plain defection or falling away from 
" God. — For good works, who sees not that they," 
(the papists of former times), were far before us, 
" and we far behind them ?" — Erasmus thus de- 
scribes the fruits of the reformation : he was, in- 
deed, a catholic ; but a catholic whom the pro- 
testants allow to have been impartial. — He was an 
eye-witness to the introduction and progress of the 
reformation ; he observed its workings with the 
eye of a philosopher, and marked them down with 
the accuracy of a candid and correct historian 

And who," says he, are those gospel people? 
" Look around you, and show me one who has 
" become a better man; — show me one, who, once 
" a glutton, is now turned sober; — one, who, be- 
" fore violent, is now meek ; — one, who, before 
" avaricious, is now generous; — one, who, before 
** impure, is now chaste. I can point out multi- 

* Ad Cap. 6, lat. 

\ Motives of Good Works, with an Epistle dedicatorie to 
the Lord Mayor of London, an. 1596. 



174 EFFECTS OF [Letter 

" tudes, who are become far worse than they were 
" before. In their assemblies you never see any of 

them heave a sigh, shed a tear, or strike his 
" breast, even on the days that are sacred to afflic- 

tion. Their discourses are little else but calum- 
^* nies against the priesthood. — They have abolished 
" confession; and few of them confess their sins 
" even to God. — They have abrogated fasting, and 
" they wallow in sensuality. — They have become 

epicureans, for fear of being Jews. —They have 
" cast off the yoke of human institutions, and along 
" with it, they have shaken off the yoke of the 
" Lord. So far from being submissive to bishops, 
" they are disobedient to the civil magistrates. 
" What tumults and seditions mark their conduct ! 
" For what trifles do they fly to arms ! St. Paul 
" commanded the first christians to shun the society 
" of the wicked; and, behold! the reformers seek 

most the society of the most corrupted; these are 
" their delight. The gospel now flourishes, for- 
" sooth, because priests and monks take wives in 
" opposition to human laws, and in despite of their 
" sacred vows. Own it; it is folly to exchange 
" evils for evils, and madness to exchange small 

evils for great ones."—" Indeed," says Me- 
lancthon% weeping while he says it, *' speaking 
" modestly, any other state of things, in any other 
" age, exhibits the beauty of an age of gold, when 
" it is compared to the confusion which the re- 
" formers introduced." 



* Ep, lib. iv. 



XII.] THE REFORMATION. 175 

Capito *, a great partizan of Luther, and much 
connected with Bucer, writes thus to Farell, a leader 
among the calvinists, As they have wholly de- 
" prived the clergy of credit, it is natural that all 
" should change for the worse. There is no longer 

any order in the communities. I acknowledge the 
" great evils which we have occasioned in the church, 
" by rejecting, with so much imprudence and pre- 
" cipitation, the authority of the pope. The peo- 
" pie is now without bridle or curb, and despises 
" all authority; as if, by abolishing the papacy, we 
" had suppressed, in the same manner, the power 
" of the servants of the church, and the efficacy of 
" the sacraments ! Every one now exclaims, — 
" I have enough to guide myself! As I have the 
" gospel to lead me to the discovery of Jesus Christ 
" and his doctrines, what need I of other help ?" — 
" All the waters of the Elbe," Melancthon f writes 
to one of his correspondents, " would not give me 
" sufficient tears to bewail the miseries of the re- 
" formation. The people will never submit to the 
" yoke, which the love of liberty had made them 
" throw off. Our partizans fight, not for the gos- 

pel, but ascendancy. Ecclesiastical discipline no 
" longer exists. Doubts are entertained on the 

most important subjects : the evil is incurable." 
Bishop Burnett gives the following view of 
the state of morality in England, in the reign of 

* Epist. ad Farell, int. Calv. p. 5. 

t Melancth. Ep. 1. iv; Ep. 100—129. 

I History of the Reformation, part 2, p. 226. 



176 EFFECTS OF [Letter 

Edward VI. : — ^' The sins of England did, at that 
" time, call down from heaven heavy curses. They 
" are sadly expressed in a discourse that Ridley 
" wrote after, under the title Of the Lamentation 
" of England : he says, that ' lechery, oppression, 
" pride, covetousness, and a hatred and scorn of 
" all religion, were generally spread among all 
" people ; but chiefly those of higher rank.' " — 
" Lechery," says Latimer, " is used in England, 
" and such lechery, as is used in no other part of 
" the world. And it is made a matter of sport, 
" a trifle, not to be passed on or reformed/' — 
I might cite passages equally strong upon the state 
of morals in the reign of queen Elizabeth, both 
from Strype^, a zealous advocate for the refor- 
mation, and Camden, the queen's historiographer ; 
but I have no pleasure in describing such scenes, 
and nothing short of your strong abuse, and, I must 
say, misrepresentation of the religion and morals 
of catholics in catholic times, would have induced 
me to transcribe the preceding passages. ---With one 
question more, however, I beg leave to trouble you. 

You are undoubtedly acquainted with the follow- 
ing strange passages in different works of Luther : 
he first describes his conduct and feelings, while 
he remained within the pale of the catholic religion, 
and observed the rules of his order: — When 
" I lived in my monastery, I punished my body 
" with watching, fasting and prayer; I observed 

* Strype's Mem. Eccl. book ii, c. 23. 



XIL] THE REFORMATION. 177 

" my vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. 

Wliatsoever 1 did, it was with singleness of heart; 
" with good zeal, and for the glory of God, &c. 
" I feared grievously the last day, and was, from 
" the bottom of my heart, desirous of being saved"^.'* 
Here, he presents us with a picture at once amiable 
and respectable ; and, as there is no reason to sup- 
pose that Luther excelled, in piety, the generality 
of his companions, it may be considered a fair 
representation of the general character of the 
members of religious orders when the reformation 
broke out. 

Now hear the description, which he gives of him- 
self, after he had commenced reformer: — I am 
" burnt," he said, with the flames of my untamed 

flesh ; I am mad almost with the rage of lust, 
" and the desire of women. I, who ought to be 
*• fervent in spirit, am fervent in impurity, in sloth, 
" &c.t Relying on the strong foundation of my 

learning, I yield not, in pride, either to the em- 

peror, prince or devil ; no, not to the universe 

itself 

You also know the strange poetical effusion of 
BezUj — 

" Abest Candida, — Beza quid moraris ! " 
Now, in all the legends, in all the other monkeries, 

* Ad Gal. 

t In Col. Mens. 

X Resp. ad Maled. Regni Angliae.— I transcribe doctor 
Fletcher's translation of these three passages. Sermons, 
vol, 2, p. ii6, 117. 



178 REVIVAL OF LETTERS. [Letter 

— I use your own words, — which you have so 
strongly vituperated, is there even one so scandalous, 
or so likely to corrupt the morals of its readers, as 
these passages in the works of the acknowledged 
patriarchs of your church ? 

XIL 4. 

Was the Revival of Letters oiving to the Reformation, 
or materially/ forivarded by it? 

The great advances which were made in every 
branch of literature, both on the Continent and in 
England, previously to the reformation, are kept 
in the background by yourself, and most other 
writers against the roman-catholic religion, so that 
the generality of readers think, that the revival of 
polite literature was entirely owing to the i^efoi^mers; 
but justice should be done to our catholic ancestors. 

Before the first dawn of the reformation, litera- 
ture, the sciences, and the arts, had found munifi- 
cent protectors in Nicholas V. Sixtus IV- and 
more than one Medicean pope ; in Besarion, 
Lionel and Borsus, at Ferrara ; in the Viscontis, 
the Sforsias, and Lewis Morus, at Milan ; in the 
dukes of Urbino ; in Alphonsus of Arragon, at 
Naples ; in Mathias Corvinus, in Hungary ; in 
Charles VIL Lewis XIL and Francis I. in France; 
in James IV. of Scotland ; and Henry VIII. of 
England. Before the end of the fifteenth cen- 
tliry, the presses had been worked in thirty-four 
towns in France ; Nicholas V. had founded the 
library of the Vatican ; Besarion had given his mag- 



XII.] REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 1*79 

nificent collection to Venice ; and the old and the 
young had crowded to the Greek school of Emanuel 
Chrysoloras *. You are not unacquainted with the 
many ladies, who, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, 
and fifteenth centuries, were illustrious for learning 
and science; you know that some of them even 
filled chairs of professors in the universities of Italy. 
During the same centuries, literature flourished so 
much in Germany, that the celebrated Reuchlin 
was accustomed to say, that " Greece had tra- 
" versed the Alps, and settled among his country- 

men/' Between the years 1403 and 1506, 
more than ten universities had been founded on 
German soil ; and improved courses of literature 
had been established in Deventer, Kempten, Alk- 
maar, Munster, Heidleberg, Worms, and various 
other Teutonic towns. Between the years 1455 
and 1536, more than 22,932,000 volumes had 
issued from various presses t ; and, long before the 
name of Luther was heard, Cimabue, the father of 
the modern school of painting, had produced noble 
specimens of his art ; Brunei] eschi had revived, at 
Florence, the forms of antient architecture; and 
Dante had produced his Divinia Comedia. 

Survey the long line of towns in Belgium ; those 
which adorn Lombardy ; the many public edifices of 
magnificent and costly architecture, with which they 

* See the Recherches sur les Bibliotheques, p. 82. 207. 233, 
and A. H. L. Heeren's Geschiclite der Kunste und der Wis- 
senschaften, seit der Wiederherstellung derselben. 

t Recherches sur les Bibliotheques, p. 180, 
N 2 



180 REVIVAL OF LETTERS {Letter 

are filled; the works in marble, gold, silver, iron 
and bronze, with which they are ornamented ; — how 
much of these were anterior to Luther! 

In England, Roger Bacon had meditated, and 
Chaucer had sung. Erasmus informs us, that 
" learning triumphed in England, and that the 
" king and the queen, two cardinals, and almost 

all the bishops, exerted themselves in promoting 
" and encouraging it." He mentions, " as emi- 
" nently learned, Linacre, the king's physician ; 
" Cuthbert Trunstal, master of the rolls ; Sir 
" Thomas Moore, of the privy council ; Pace, se- 
" cretary of state ; William Mountjoy, the queen's 

chamberlain ; John Colet, preacher to their ma- 
" jesties and " as yet," says Erasmus, " I have 

only mentioned the chief The court abounds 

with such eminent men, that it seems a seat of 
" the muses, and may vie with any school of philo- 

sophy, with Athens itself^. " All this was ante- , 
rior to the reformation. I beg leave to add, that 
Mary of England, Elizabeth, Mary of Scotland, 
Lady Jane Grey, and the three ladies Seymour, all 
of whom are celebrated for their learning and ac- 
complishments, received their literary educations in 
catholic England. How many of the Elizabethan 
prelates, whose learning you ea:tol, received their 
education under roman-catholic masters? Then, 
can it be denied, that the reformation found litera- 
ture, science and art, diffused over all the southern> 



* Ad Petrum Bembum, Basile£E, an. 1518. 



XIL] REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 181 

and most of the northern territories of Europe? 
or that it was then in a very advanced state of cul- 
tivation ? or that the ardour of the public, for in- 
struction, was very high ? or that there was a very 
strong and very general desire for instruction and 
improvement ? 

Surely the progress of it was rather retarded than 
promoted by the theological disputes, the animosi- 
ties, the contentions, and the wars, which were 
occasioned by the reformation. 

It is observable, that " Luther and Melancthon,'' 
to use the words of Mosheim *, seemed to set 

out witli a resolution to banish every species of 

philosophy from the church/' Luther wished 
that the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and the 
other ancient classics, should be consigned to the 
flames t. Stock, his disciple, opposed the teaching 
of the alphabet, lest the distractions, which study 
occasions, should withhold the mind from God t : 
on this principle, he founded a sect called Abece- 
darians. " At Strasburg," says Erasmus, in a letter 
to Melancthon §, it is publicly taught, that no 
" science should be cultivated, and that no language, 
" except Hebrew, should be taught." 1 see no rea- 
son to suppose, that Luther changed the opinion 
expressed in the passage which I have cited : Me- 
lancthon certainly did, and published his Loci 

* Cent. xvi. c. i, s. lo. 
t Ep. ad Nob. Germ. an. 1520. 
if Osiander, Cent. xvi. E. 2. 
§ Ep. 71. — ad Melancthon. 

N 3 



182 REVIVAL OF LETTERS. [Letter 

Communes, a philosophical work, greatly esteemed. 
From this time, letters were generally cultivated by 
the reformers, and they deserved highly of litera- 
ture ; still, you must admit that the first advances 
were made by roman-catholics, and that the revival 
of letters was originally, if not principally, owing to 
them. 

You will probably expect, that 1 should say some- 
thing on the subject of the Biblical studies of the 
roman-catholics before the period of the reforma- 
tion. I trust that you will agree with me, that, 
taking the circumstances of the times into consider- 
ation, they were pursued both with ardour and 
success. On this head, I beg leave to refer you to 
the second part of doctor Hody's " Scholastic His- 
tory of the Text and Versions of the Greek and 
Latin Vulgate you will find it proves, beyond 
controversy, that there never was a time, even in 
the darkest ages, in which the study of the scrip* 
tures, in their original languages, was not cultivated 
and encouraged by the roman-catholic clergy. The 
works of the venerable Bede, of Grossetete, the 
bishop of Lincoln, and Roger Bacon, show how 
much they were encouraged in this country. No 
sooner was the typographic art discovered, than the 
catholic presses were employed in printing, in every 
size, from the folio to the twenty-fourth, editions of 
the Old and New Testament. The labours of 
Lanfranc, whom you so much and so deservedly 
praise, in procuring correct copies both of the Old 
and New Testament, are mentioned by Baronius, 



XII.] REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 183 

Cave, Dupin, and Wetstein. Every roman-catliolic 
acknowledges, with readiness, the transcendent 
merit of the London Polyglot ; but it was preceded 
by those of Complutum, Antwerp, and Paris. Will 
it be too much to require, of candid protestants, to 
admit, that without these, the London Polyglot 
would not have existed ? The Complutensian Poly- 
glot was begun in 1502, and the whole printed in 
1517, long before the first dawn of the reformation. 

You mention the translations of the Bible into 
English in terms, which must lead your readers to 
suppose, that the roman-catholic church discourages 
translations of it into vernacular languages. How 
very often, and how very erroneously, has this been 
charged upon the catholics ! If you will do your 
present correspondent the favour, to look into his 
" Essay on the Discipline of the Church of Rome, 
** respecting the general perusal of the Scriptures 
in the vulgar Tongue, by the Laity you will 
find, that several translations into the German, 
several into the French, several into the Italian, and 
several into the Belgic tongue, had been printed, 
before publications of protestant versions in those 
languages appeared. I beg leave to add, that, at 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 50,000 copies 

* Butler's works, vol. 4, essay ii, p. 191. In the Garden 
" of the Soul," the most popular catholic prayer-book, a new 
edition of which, with the formal approbation of doctor 
Poynter, has been recently published, roman-catholics are 
recommended, (p. 203), " before they go to bed, to read a 
chapter in the scripture^ or some spiritual book." 

X 4 



184 DISSOLUTION OF [Letter 

of a French translation of the New Testament, 
were, at the recommendation of Bossuet, distri- 
buted among the converted protestants, by the 
order of Louis XIV Several years ago, I was 
furnished, by an English bookseller, with a list of 
twenty-three editions of the roman-catholic transla- 
tion of the New, or of both the Old and New 
Testament ; and many have been printed since 
that time. For several years past, the roman- 
catholics have been censured, with great severity, 
for not encouraging, to the extent recommended, 
the promiscuous reading of the English Bible, by 
the laity, without note or comment. Are we not 
entitled to our opinion upon it ? Has not expe- 
rience justified our caution ^ Have not several 
eminent lights, of the protestant church, always 
condemned, do not several of them now condemn 
it ? Have not many of the most respectable advo- 
cates, for the general distribution of Bibles, now 
declared a different opinion ? 

XII. 5. 

Whether the Conduct of the religious Orders justified the 
Dissolution of the Monasteries? 

A PERSON, who would publish a true and full 
account of this important event, and state candidly 
in it, the advantages and disadvantages which, at 
the aera of the reformation, attended monastic 

* Vie de Bossuet, eveque de Meaux, par le cardinal de 
Bausset, ed. 1814, tome iv. p. 83. 



XII.] MONASTERIES. 185 

establishments, would deserve vrell of the literary- 
world. To the best of my power, I have attempted 
to do it in my Historical Memoirs of the English, 

Scottish, and Irish Roman- catholics and you 
will oblige me by perusing what I have written in 
that work upon this subject. 

In a preceding letter, I have inserted the enco- 
miastic account given of monasteries by M. Mallet, 
an intelligent and candid protestant. I shall now 
transcribe what is said of them, by an abler writer, 
not unknown to yourself*. 

" The world has never been so deeply indebted 
" to any body of men, as to this illustrious order; 

but historians, when relating the evil of which 
" they are the occasion, have forgotten the good 

which they produced. Even the commonest 
'* readers are familiar with the history of that arch 

miracle-monger St. Dunstan; whilst the most 
" learned of our countrymen scarce remember the 

names of those admirable men, who went forth 

from England, and became the apostles of the 
" North. Tinian and Juan Fernandez are not 
" more beautiful spots on the ocean, than Malms- 
" bury, and Lendisfarne, and Jarrow, in the ages 
" of our heptarchy. A community of pious men, 
*' devoted to literature, and to the useful arts, as 
" well as to religion, seems, in those ages, like a 
*' green oasis amid the desert; like stars in a moon- 
" less night, they shine upon us with a tranquil 

* Quarterly Review fpr December 1811. 



186 DISSOLUTION OF [Letter 

" ray. If ever there was a man who could truly 
" be called venerable, it was he to whom that ap- 

pellation is constantly fixed, Bede, whose life 
" was past in instructing his own generation, and 
" preparing records for posterity. In those days 
" the church offered the only asylum from the 
" evils to which every country was exposed : amidst 
" continual wars the church enjoyed peace ; it was 
" regarded as a sacred realm by men, who, though 
" they hated each other, believed and feared the 
" same God. Abused as it was, by the worldly- 
" minded and ambitious, and disgraced by the 

artifices of the designing, and the foUies of the 
" fanatic, it afforded a shelter to those who were 
*' better than the world in their youth, or weary of 
" it in their age : the wise, as well as the timid and 
" the gentle, fled to this Goshen of God, which en- 
" joyed its own light and calm, amid darkness and 
" storms.'* 

After perusijig this splendid tribute, evidently 
given by no mean hand, to the useful and the 
edifying habits of the inhabitants of the monas- 
teries, it is difficult to believe, that the lives of a 
great proportion of them were so scandalous, or 
even so useless, as to justify a total suppression of 
them. 

The best account of this extraordinary event, 
which has come to my hands, is given in " Collier's 
" Ecclesiastical History." He sheds a generous 
tear over the sufferers ; and, while he admits the 
criminality of some individuals, and the disorders 



XII.] MONASTERIES. 187 

of some houses, he honourably and successfully 
advocates the general integrity of the body. 

In my opinion, the report of the commissioners, 
employed in the visitation of the monasteries, is 
wholly unworthy of credit. Y)^ e see how little at- 
tention to truth, and how great a violation, both of 
the substance and forms of justice, were shown, 
even in the proceedings in parliament, and in the 
highest courts of justice, against the most exalted 
and most distinguished personages, whom the king 
wished to oppress, and whom all, except the king^ 
wished to preserve. How much less, then, must 
necessarily have been the attention paid, either to 
truth or justice, when monks and nuns were to be 
persecuted? where obscure individuals were ap- 
pointed to report upon their conduct ? where the 
king was deter minately bent upon their ruin ? where 
his courtiers were indifferent to their fate? and 
where plunder of them was the general aim and 
immediate expectation of many, and the sanguine 
hope of almost all ? 

XII. 6. 

Alleged Negligence of the Church of Rome, in remedying 
Ecclesiastical Abuses. 

You remark, that " much might have been done 
" by the timely removal of abuses, so gross, that 
" the romanists of the present age are reduced, in 
" the face of notorious facts, to deny what they find 
" it impossible to defend.*' 



188 DISSOLUTION OF [Letter 

Do we really deserve this abusive language? 
In the passage which I translated, in a former 
page, from Bossuet, are the abuses in the church 
denied? Are they even palliated? Is not this 
passage alone, particularly if we take into account 
the documents which it cites, and, therefore, incor- 
porates, a complete refutation of the most con- 
tumelious charge, which you, in this place, bring 
against us ? In the fifth of his excellent letters to 
doctor Sturges, doctor Milner expressly acknow- 
ledges " the increasing spirit of irreligion and im- 
morality among different nations, and in none more 
than our own, during a considerable time pre- 
" vious to the reformation." Are not these as full 
confessions of the abuses in the church, as you can 
require ? We believe that they were not so exten- 
sive, or so enormous, as you represent them. We 
think your description of them a hideous caricature ; 
but their existence, to a great and lamentable height 
and extent, we never deny. If you look into Mr. 
Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints," one of the 
most popular works which have issued from the 
roman-catholic press, you will scarcely find in it 
the life of any saint, who flourished during the 
middle ages, in which, on the one hand, the then 
existing disorders, and, on the other, his exertions 
to remove them, are not mentioned. 

Thus, contrary to your strong accusation, do our 
writers acknowledge the existence of abuses in our 
own church. But why are you silent on the unceasing 
efforts of the roman-catholic church to remedy them ? 



XII.] MONASTERIES. 189 

In 789, the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 813, the 
council of Chalons, proscribed the abuses in pil- 
grimages. In 1215, the council of Lataran, in 1 2 74, 
the council of Lyons, came to resolutions against 
the multiplication of religious orders. In the last of 
these councils, and in that of Constance, much was 
said against the prodigality, with which indulgences 
were then distributed. Are you ignorant of the 
resolutions taken at the councils of Constance and 
Basil, against the abuses of papal power? ^neas 
Silvius, afterwards pope Pius II. informs us, that 
" the doctrine held in those councils was that of the 
" greater number of catholic divines, of the lights 
of the church, of the doctors of truth, and of 
most of the universities and schools in Christen- 
dom^". 

Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, and cardinal 
Cusa, publicly called into question the authenticity 
of the decretals. Look into the histories of the 
pontificates of Leo IV, Leo IX, Gregory VII, Inno- 
cent III, Urban V, you will find abundant proof of 
the exertions of the popes, to preserve both integrity 
of faith and purity of morals in every part of Christ- 
endom, and to propagate Christianity in the remotest 
regions of the earth. Open your own Wilkins; 
see what was done by the English roman- catholic 
clergy, during the middle ages, to promote the 
honour of God and the welfare of man. *^ Gre- 
" gory VII, Alexander III, Innocent IV," says 



* Comment. Pii II. p. m. 15. 



190 ROMAN-CATHOLIC [Letter 

Muller, a protestant writer of celebrity, arrested 
" the torrent of immorality which was then swallow- 

" ing up the world If the hierarchy had been 

removed, Europe would have been deprived of an 
order of men, which, (although it were for their 
own interest only), has always had its eyes upon the 
public welfare. An asylum against the wrath of 
" kings was found in the altar; an asylum against 
the abuse of ecclesiastical power was found in the 
" throne, and the public good resulted from the 
balance." Why then have you dwelt so little on 
the edifying parts of the history of the roman- 
catholic church, and so much on its misfortunes? 
What should you think of a painter, who, profess- 
ing to give a view of the Alps, should keep its mag- 
nificent scenery wholly in the background, and 
bring nothing prominently in sight, but the few 
stagnant marshes which deform it? 



XIL 7. 

Doctor Southey's Abuse of former and present Catholic 
Historical Writers. 

You say little on the subject of the divorce; but, 
when you mention the execution of Anne Boleyn, 
you tell us, that the romanists were, in that age, 
*' so accustomed to falsehood, that they could not 

abstain from it, even when truth might have 
" served their cause. With characteristic effrontery, 
" they asserted, that her mother and her sister had 



XII.] WRITERS DEFENDED. 191 

*' both been mistresses of the king, and that she 

" was his own daughter. 

In this spirit the histories of our reformation 

" were composed, till they perceived that such 

" coarse calumnies could no longer be palmed 
upon the world, and then they past into an in- 
sidious strain, little less malicious, and not more 

« faithful." 

Henry's connexion with the mother of Anne 
Boleyn is rejected by doctor Lingard; but the con- 
nexion between Henry and Mary, the sister of the 
unfortunate Anne, admits of no doubt. The mo- 
narch's connexion with the mother of Anne is pro- 
blematical : the argument for it rests principally 
on the strong assertion of Saunders, and the infer- 
ences to be drawn, from the marked care and at- 
tention which the monarch constantly bestowed on 
Anne, from the time of her birth ; from the ex- 
pensive education, and the splendid establishment 
which she received from him, and for which no 
other reason can be assigned. Burnet replied to 
Saunders; le Grand to Burnet; and le Grand's 
arguments are powerful. But crimes should never 
be believed without strong, and seldom without 
positive evidence. This, in the present case, appears 
to be wholly wanting ; and cardinal Pole's total 
silence upon the charge, in his acrimonious invec- 
tives against Henry, is favourable to the monarch. 
I do not believe the tale : but I cannot think that 
the historians who asserted it deserve the epithet of 
" fiendish malignity," which you bestow upon them. 
If they deserve it, what epithet do those deserve, 



192 ROMAN-CATHOLIC [Letter 

who, in the days of James II, invented or propa- 
gated the story of the warming-pan? 

I know of no catholic writer who deserves the 
strong expressions which, in the passage I have cited 
from your work, you have applied, without any ex- 
ception, to all our former and all our present histo- 
rians of the reformation. You know the great and 
deserved celebrity of " Doctor Milner's Letters to 
" Doctor Sturges the greatest part of them is 
of an historical nature ; and there never has been 
a more powerful attack on the characters of the 
persons, by whom the reformation was primitively 
established and supported, than in this work. It 
appeared in 1800; and thus it has been twenty- 
four years before the public : seven editions of it 
have been published. 

Can you point out in it one instance of that 
" falsehood," that coarse calumny," those insi- 
" dious strains," that characteristic effrontery," 
that " malice," that " insidiousness," or that " faith- 
" lessness," with which you charge our historians 
in the sentence which I have transcribed from your 
work. 

You probably are acquainted with doctor Milner's 
"End of Controversy," published in 1818, and 
now in its third edition ; the ablest exposition of 
the doctrines of the roman-catholic church, on the 
articles contested with her by protestantsj and the 
ablest statement of the proofs by which they are 
supported, and of the historical facts with which 
they are connected, that has appeared in our lan- 
guage. You probably have heard of the " Reply 



XIL] WRITERS DEFENDED. 193 

" to it/' published by the reverend Richard Grier, 
vicar of Templebodane, in Ireland, and of doctor 
Milner's Vindication," published in 1822. Can 
you point out in the End of Controversy," or the 
" Vindication of it," even a single passage, to which 
even one of the opprobrious expressions in your work 
can be justly applied ? or can you point out a single 
passage objected to by Mr. Grier, in which doctor 
Milner has not triumphantly refuted him ? 

Doctor Lingard's history is evidently not un- 
known to you. Does he not appear, in every part 
of it, to have consulted original writers and docu- 
ments ? Does he not uniformly express himself in 
the most explicit terms ? Does he not regularly 
mention the dates of every occurrence related by 
him? Does he not constantly cite the authorities 
upon which his relations are founded ? Is not his 
language uniformly temperate ? Yet, in the un- 
qualified generality of your opprobrious words, is 
his excellent history included ! 

One passage in it you particularly advert to : 
" It is fit," you say*, " that the reader should 

know in what manner the recent catholic histo- 
" rian, doctor Lingard, speaks of lord Cobham's 
" trial, before the convocation, at which Arundel, 

the archbishop of Canterbury, presided ; he says, 
" that ' Lord Cobham's conduct was as arrogant and 
*^ insulting, as that of his judge was mild and dig- 

nified.' It is fitting, indeed, that we should 

* Vol 1. p. 391, note, 
o 



194 COBHAM. [Letter 

" know in what manner an English catholic histo- 
" rian speaks of such transactions in these times.'' 
— We cannot think the three last words of this 
sentence, — you yourself print them in italics, — are 
used with good-natured intentions towards us. 

The best account of what passed at lord Cob- 
ham's trial, is given in the Acts of the Convocation, 
published by Wilkins *. If I could place the volume 
and the pages before my readers, I should be satis- 
fied and silent : as every person, who perused them, 
would acknowledge the accuracy of doctor Lin- 
gard's representation. No insulting, no harsh ex- 
pression, was uttered by the archbishop ; his ad- 
dresses to lord Cobham were uniformly decorous, 
dignified, and mild. He adjourned the court for 
four days, to give lord Cobham time for reflection 
and defence. Was any thing like this humanity 
exhibited on the trials of the innocent catholics, in 
the reigns of queen Elizabeth and her three pro- 
testant successors ? 

Lord Cobham had three times refused to obey 
the process of the court requiring his appearance ; 
he had fortified his castle to prevent its being 
served upon him; and, ultimately, he was appre- 
hended by force. When, at length, he was pro- 
duced in court, he declined giving explicit answers 
on the points on which he was interrogated : I 

believe," he said, all that my Lord God would 
" I should believe." — ^* Such faith/' you remark, 

was not sufficient, under the papal tyranny, to 
* Concilia, vol, 3. p. 353—357. 



XII.] COBHAM. 195 

" save him from the flames." Was it sufficient 
to save from the rack or gibbet the catholic sufferers 
in this kingdom for their religion in any protes • 
tant reign ? Would it have saved the anabaptists, 
who suffered in the reign of Elizabeth ? or the 
arians, who suffered in the reign of James ? Would 
it have satisfied any of the judges, who lately tried 
the Carlisles ? or the magistrates, who lately com- 
mitted Hale? Lord Cobham repeatedly denied the 
jurisdiction of the court who tried him ; compared 
his judges to the Pharisees, to Ananias, to Caiphas : 
he told them, that " Rome was the very nest of 
*' antichrist; and that out of that nest came all the 
" disciples of him, of whom prelates, priests, and 
" monks were the body, and the piled friars the 
" tail. Your possessions and lordships," he told 
the archbishop, " are venom, shed by Judas unto the 
" church: — ye never followed Christ." Can you 
say, that this language was not arrogant, or not 
insulting? —I use your own translation of it. 

I trust that this, though a succinct, will be found 
a true representation of what past between the 
archbishop and lord Cobham. I now ask, whether, 
if a person should, at this time, conduct himself in 
any spiritual or temporal court, in the same man- 
ner as lord Cobham did in the court of convoca- 
tion, before archbishop Arundel, he would not be 
punished? Yet you laud lord Cobham's conduct 
throughout. 

You then inform us, that the court " excom- 
" municated lord Cobham, and pronounced him 
o 2 



106 COBHAM. [Letter 

accursed ; and not him alone, but all who should 
" in anyway receive, help, or defend him." The 
word accursed, is your own addition : no such word 
was used by the court. You call it a cruel and 
" inhuman " sentence : how many sentences equally 
cruel and inhuman have been passed by protestant 
courts on catholics, not only less culpable than lord 
Cobham, but perfectly innocent of the crimes of 
which they were accused ? and their innocence of 
which is now acknowledged ? 

In a former part of your work, you transcribe 
the terrible words in which excommunication was 
expressed: you observe, that no form of heathen 
" superstition could have been so revolting, as when 
" a christian minister called upon the Redeemer of 
" Mankind to fulfil execrations which the devil 

himself might seem to have inspired." I do not 
defend the words to which you object ; they were 
devised in an age of barbarism, when the most 
forcible language only had any effect on the popu- 
lace : they were an abusive application of the curses 
in Deuteronomy'^ ; and, I believe, they were re- 
sorted to only on singular occasions, and that, before 
the revival of letters, they had fallen into desuetude. 
By perusing the document in Wilkins, to which 
I have referred, you will observe, that the sentence 
of excommunication, past by archbishop Arundel 
on lord Cobham, does not contain these execra* 
tions. — According to the actual jurisprudence of 



* Deut. c. xxxviii. 



XII.] HENRY VIII. 197 

England, excommunication is yet attended by 
many civil penalties and disabilities. 

All, who peruse your account of lord Cobhara, 
and your censure of doctor Lingard, should recol- 
lect that, in an earlier part of " the Book of the 
Church/' you inform us, that " the Lollards held 
" principles incompatible with the peace of society; 

opinions founded in gross error, and leading to 
" direct and enormous evil;" and that '* lord 
" Cobham was confessedly their head and leader." 
I trust I have successfully vindicated doctor Lin- 
gard against the only particular charge you have 
brought against him. 

Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish, 
" and Scottish Catholics," have been published by 
another hand : you may, perhaps, find some things 
in them which you think objectionable ; but I feel 
a strong confidence, that they do not merit any of 
the undistinguishing and unqualified expressions of 
gross abuse, which you apply to the historical produc- 
tions of every catholic historian of the reformation. 

You close the chapter, by an insinuation in favour 
of Henry VIII. You intimate, that "he was not 
the mere monster which, upon a cursory view, he 
must needs appear to every young and ingenuous 
" mind :" yet you mention, in the preceding line, 
" his many revolting acts of caprice and cruelty;" 
and, in a subsequent line, his sending a wife and 
" a minister to the scaffold with as little compunc- 
" tion, as he would have in sending a dog to be 
" drowned." 

o 3 



198 CROMWELL. [Letter XIL 

The frequent repetition of these enormities, in 
every part of his reign ; his general profligacy ; his 
prodigality; his wicked interferences with the courts 
of justice ; his unjust and ruinous wars ; and his 
general oppression of his people, are confessed by 
all his historians : all represent him, — to use the 
language of one of the most eminent among them,— 
as a tyrant, who never spared woman in his lust, 
" nor man in his wrath; so that, if all the patterns 
" of a merciless prince had been lost in the world, 

they might have been found in this king^/' Such 
is the character given, even by his protestant histo- 
rians, of Henry ; if it be true, it justifies your ex* 
pression, — he was not a mere monster, he was more : 
I wish you to mention the vices which he did not 
possess ; or the talents which he possessed, and did 
not abuse. 

Cromwell, his active minister, particularly in his 
rejection of the pope's supremacy, and the disso- 
lution of the monasteries, you highly extol : but you 
omit to mention that he died in the roman-catholic 
faith ; and that, from the scaffold, he solemnly pro- 
fessed, and called on the spectators ** to bear him 
" record, that he died in the catholic faith, not 

doubting in any article of his faith." 



* Heylin's Hist. p. 15; he citing Sir Walter Raleigh. 



199 



LETTER XIII. 
EDWARD VI. 

SIR, 

IT gives me pleasure to mention, that your ac- 
count of the suppression of the remaining colleges^ 
and the hospitals and chantries, and of the general 
destruction of their libraries, and the sacred and 
secular articles of use and ornament belonging to 
them, in the reign of Edward VI. is free from ob- 
jection, and written with equal accuracy and elo- 
quence. A catholic, however, may be permitted to 
wish, that you had given in it some account of the 
enormous wickedness of the protector Somerset, 
and of Dudley earl of Warwick, who supplanted 
him. Under the influence of these daring noble- 
men, Cranmer devised the first sanguinary code 
that was framed against the English catholics. 
Now the bad character of the persecutor is univer- 
sally considered to be favourable to the persecuted : 
on this account, it has, you well know, been deemed 
honourable to Christianity, that Nero was its first 
persecutor; justice, therefore, to the catholics 
seems to require, that it should be known who the 
persons were by whom they were first persecuted. 

You might also have noticed the opinion of 
Cranmer, that the exercise of episcopal jurisdiction 
depends upon the prince ; that, in conformity to 
this principle, he thought his own right to exercise 

o 4 



200 EDWARD VL [Letter 

episcopal authority had ended with the life of 
Henry VIII, ; that he would not act as archbishop, 
until the infant monarch had renewed his commis- 
sion ; that his example was imitated by other pre- 
lates; and that this proceeding was as inconsistent 
with the doctrine of the church of England, expressed 
in the thirty-nine articles, as it is with the doctrine 
and discipline of the roman- catholic church. 

You might, too, have mentioned Cranmer's alien- 
ation of the better half of the possessions of the see 
of Canterbury to the king. Read the article in 
Collier's " Appendix to the second volume of his 

history," in which he gives " an account of the 
** church lands alienated by the prelates, from their 
" sees, in the reign of Henry Vlll." You will find 
in it what Cranmer did, and how his example was 
imitated by Ridley and other prelates. So great a 
friend as you profess yourself to the dignity and 
com.fort of the English hierarchy, you may, perhaps, 
feel a wish, that, on this occasion, Cranmer and his 
imitators had shown something of the stern and 
uncompromising spirit of Becket. 

You might too, and, in justice to the roman- 
catholics you ought, to have noticed their patience 
during the innovations in the reign of Edward VI. 
and the miseries which attended them. It is diffi- 
cult to find, in history, an instance of more general 
or galling spoliation and oppression than those 
which the roman- catholics then suffered. You ad- 
mit, that the majority of the nation was, at this 
'' time, attached to the old faith;" the government 



XIII.] EDWARD VI. 201 

was distracted, and the mind of the public was 
generally alienated from it. Thus the roman- 
catholics, if it had been their principle to propagate 
their religion, or even to ward off its impending 
ruin, by violence, might have easily established their 
ascendency ; but this is neither their doctrine nor 
their practice, — the roman- catholics, therefore, re- 
mained in peace. Such a remark, at the present 
time^', — if you had made it, — would not have been 
lost upon us ; we should have gratefully received it. 
With this feeling, we read your candid acknowledg- 
ment, that the insurrection, in Edward's reign, was 
" a conflict, not between the adherents of the old 
religion and of the new, but between men who 
" fought for plunder, and those whose property 
" was at stake." 

The subject now calls me to return to the charges 
of ignorance and corruption with which you so often, 
and so contumeliously, upbraid our church. Here, 
let me request you to consider the proceedings, so 
highly injurious to sacred and profane learning of 
every kind, which attended the introduction of the 
new religion in the reign of Henry VIII. and its 
progress during that of the infant Edward, whom you 
so highly celebrate j and to compare them with those 
which attended the rise and progress of the catholic 
religion in this country. You recollect the expres- 
sion, as just as it is beautiful, of Collier, which 
I have already cited, — that, on the introduction of 

* See the italic words in " the Book of the Church," 
vol. 1. p. 379. — At this time, the British roman-catholics are 
petitioning for emancipation. 



^02 EDWARD VI. [Letter 

catholic faith into England, *' every thing seemed 
brightened, as if nature had been melted down 
^* and recoined/^ In proportion as the catholic 
faith advanced, hmnanity, civilization, the arts and 
the sciences, advanced with her, and were equally 
encouraged by the monarch, the pastors, and their 
flocks. I request you, (always bearing in mind 
that printing was then unknown), to say, whether, 
in your opinion, these advances in useful and orna- 
mental knowledge, and this encouragement of them, 
were not greater than the most sanguine hopes 
could have expected ? All were extinguished by 
the Danish invasion ; but no sooner was the Nor- 
man government settled, than all the useful and 
ornamental literature revived : the dominions of 
Henry II. became, if the expression may be allowed, 
the Athens of the feudal territories ; and, notwith- 
standing the long years of havoc, which urged their 
destined way during the contests between the 
house of York and the house of Lancaster, arts, 
sciences and literature, were constantly on the 
increase. Compare this with the Vandal scenes 
which began in the reign of Henry, and were con- 
summated in the reign of his son. " I judge it to 
be true," says the most anti-catholic Bale *, and 
" I utter it with heaviness, that neither the Britons 
" under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the 
" English people under the Danes and Normans, 
" had ever such damage of their learned monu- 
ments, as we have at this our time. Our pos- 

Declaration upon Leland's Journal, ann. 1549; Fuller's 
Church History, book vi, 333. 



XIII.] EDWARD VI. 203 

terity may well curse the wicked fall of our age ; 
" this unreasonable sport of England's most noble 
" antiquities," 

Can it then be honourably said, that the rise 
and first progress of the new religion in this coun- 
try, were as edifying or as salutary as the rise and 
first progress of the catholic religion had been ? 

But the catholic religion had superstitions and 
corruptions : — this is your constant theme. That, 
during the legal establishment of the catholic reli- 
gion, there were some superstitions and some cor- 
rupt practices, I admit ; and I have shown, that 
this has been admitted by our best roman-catholic 
writers, though all deny that either superstition or 
corruption existed in the extent you describe. ^ — 
Admitting, however, for the sake of argument, that 
both existed in the very extent described by you, — 
I have no fear of closing with you even on this 
ground. — Permit me to ask you, whom I suppose 
to be a protestant of the thirty-nine articles, a single 
question: Which is the greatest obstacle to the 
rise, the progress, or the revival of religion, — super- 
stition and corruption, or laxity of creed and indif- 
ference ? I leave you to answer this question, and 
to di'aw the inference. 

Believe me, Sir, the time is come, when it is for 
the interests of all protestants and all catholics, who 
sincerely wish well to their respective religions, to 
abstain from contention, and to unite in the defence 
of their common Christianity. All my writings, 
jsuch as they are, have at least the merit of incul- 
cating this salutary truth. 



204 



[Letter 



LETTER XIV. 
QUEEN MARY. 

SIR, 

I HAVE now to consider the chapter in " the 
" Book of the Church," which relates to the reign 
of Queen Mary. Permit me to offer you some obser- 
vations, I. On her persecutions of the protestants : 

II. On archbishop Cranmer and bishop Latimer : 

III. And the queen's general character. 

XIV. 1. 

Persecutions of the Protestants in the Reign of Queen 
Mary. 

In your account of the burning of Joan Bocher, 
in the reign of Edward VI. you mention, that the 
active part which Cranmer took in it is the saddest 
page in his history 5 the only one which admits of 
no excuse. Permit me to introduce the subject of 
this letter by asking, — what excuse you can suggest 
for the provision for the persecution of the roman- 
catholics, which Cranmer inserted in his " Code 
" for the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws of 

England * ?" By this, a belief of transubstan- 
tiation, of the supremacy of the pope, or of justifi- 
cation by faith only, was made heresy ; and it was 

* Under the title " de Haeresibus," c. i. 7. 19. 21; and, 
" de Judiciis contra hsec," c. i. 1, 2, 3, 4. 



XIV.] MARY. 205 

ordained, that individuals, accused of holding any 
such heretical opinions, should be arraigned before 
the spiritual courts ; should, on conviction, be there 
excommunicated; and, after a respite of sixteen days, 
should, if they continued obstinate, be delivered to 
the civil magistrate, to suffer the punishment pro- 
vided by IsLW, Is it possible to allege any thing 
in extenuation of these provisions ? 

In extenuation of Mary's persecutions, it may be 
said, that she did no more than execute, against 
Cranmer and his associates, the provisions to which 
he had wished her and her associates to be exposed ; 
so that the flames, in which he was consumed, were 
those in which he himself had burned the anabap- 
tists, and sought to burn the catholics. It may 
also be suggested, that Cranmer 's sanguinary 
scheme had not been provoked by any misconduct 
or intemperance of the catholics ; but that the pro- 
vocations which the protestants had given to Mary, 
were numerous and irritating. " They heaped," 
says doctor Lingard, " on the queen, her bishops, 
" and her religion, every irritating epithet which 

language could supply. Her clergy could not 
" exercise their functions without danger to their 
" lives : a dagger was thrown at one priest in the 
" pulpit ; a gun was discharged at another ; and 
** several wounds were inflicted on a third, while he 
" administered the communion in his church. The 
" chief supporters of the treason of Northumber- 

land, the most active among the adherents of 

Wyat, professed the reformed creed : an im- 



206 MARY. [Letter 

" postor was suborned to personate Edward VI. 5 
a pretended spirit published denunciations against 
the queen, from a hole in a wall; some congre- 
gations prayed for her death ; tracts, filled with 
" libellous and treasonable matter, were transmitted 
from the exiles in Germany* ; andsuccessive insur- 
" rections were planned by the fugitives in France." 
— When public prayers," says Mr. Phillips in his 
Life of Cardinal Pole, "were ordered, on the sup- 
" position of the queen's pregnancy, a reformed 
*' preacher made use of the form, — ' that it would 
" please God, either to turn her heart from idolatry, 
" or shorten her days.' A dog's head was shaved 
" in contempt of the clerical tonsure ; and, by an 
" impiety, which," says Mr. Phillips, " I have 
" difficulty to repeat, a wafer was put into a dead 
" cat's paw, in derision of the holy sacrament, and 
" hung up at Cheapside." 

That these were great provocations, you must 
admit : You must also admit, that no such provo- 
cations were given by the roman-catholics, either 
on the accession of Edward, or the accession of 
Elizabeth. Do the persecutions which I have men- 
tioned justify Mary's persecutions ? By no means : 
I think they would have justified measures of pre- 
caution ; but, between wise measures of precaution 
and persecution, the space is immense. You say 

* If scurrility and calumny form the merit of a libel, it will 
be difficult to find anything to equal these publications. The 
reader will meet with some samples in Strype, iii. 251, 252. 
328. 358. 410, 460. 



XIV.] MARY. 203 

much in praise of the sanctity of the martyrs in 
Mary's reign : " I have/' says doctor Milner, in 
his twenty-second letter in his End of Contro- 
versy," " discussed this matter at some length in 
" * the Letters to a Prebendary and have shown, 
'* in opposition to John Fox and his copyists, that 
" some of these pretended martyrs were alive when 
" he wrote the history of their deaths ^ ; that others 
" of them, and the five bishops in particular, so 
" far from being saints, were notoriously deficient 
" in the duties of subjects and honest men t ; that 
" others again were notorious assassins, as Gardener, 
" Flower, and Rough ; or robbers, as Debenham, 
'' King, Marsh, Cauchis, Gilbert, Massey, &c. J; 
*' while not a few of them retracted their errors, as 
" Bilney, Taylor, Wassalia, and died, to all appear- 
" ance, catholics." 

There appears to be reason to think, that Mary's 
bishops, in general, did not promote the persecu- 
tion. Little blame seems imputable to cardinal 
Pole, or bishop Tunstal ; more is chargeable on 
Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester and chancellor ; 
the greatest part of the odium fell on Bonner. 
Doctor Lingard suggests some observations, which 
render it very probable, that neither Gardiner 
nor Bonner were quite so guilty as they have been 
generally represented. 

It should not be forgotten, that Alphonsus de 

* See Letter iv. on Persecution, 
t See Letter v. on the Reformation. 
% Letter iv. 



208 MARY. [Letter 

Castro, a Spanish friar, and confessor to Phillip, in 
a sermon preached before the court, condemned 
these proceedings in the most pointed manner*, 
as contrary both to the text and the spirit of the 
gospel." He said, that " it was not by severity, 

but by mildness, that men were to be brought 
" into the fold of Christ ; and that it was not the 
" duty of bishops to seek the death, but to instruct 
" the ignorance of their misguided brethren." — 

Many," says doctor Lingard, were at a loss to 
" account for the discourse ; whether it was the 
" spontaneous effort of the friar, or had been sug- 

gested to him by the policy of Phillip, or by the 
" humanity of cardinal Pole, or by the repugnance 
" of the bishops: it made, however, a deep im- 
" pression." The preacher was afterwards ad- 
vanced to a bishopric in Spain. Doctor Lingard 
also shows, that the discussion related by Hume t 
to have taken place between cardinal Pole and 
Gardiner, on the intended persecution, is altogether 
imaginary ; and that there is no foundation for 
Burnet's assertion, copied by Hume, that the in- 
structions given to the magistrates, to watch over 
the public peace, and, for that purpose, to appre- 
hend the propagators of seditious reports, and the 
preachers of seditious doctrines, was an attempt to 
introduce the inquisition. He also show^s, that 
there is no truth in the tale of the martyrdoms of 
the three women of Guernsey. 



* Strype, iii. 209. 



t Chapter xxxvii. 



XIV.l MARY. 209 

" After every allowance/' says doctor Lingard, 
" it will be found, that, in the space of four years, 
" two hundred persons perished in the flames for 
" religious opinions ; a number, at the contempla- 
" tion of which the mind is struck with horror, and 
" learns to bless the legislation of a more tolerant 
" age, in w^hich dissent from established forms, 
" though in some countries still punished with civil 
disabilities, is nowhere liable to the penalties of 
" death.'' 

You mention, in the highest terms of praise, the 
fortitude with which the Marian martyrs, as you 
call them, sustained the flames which consumed 
them. I admire it as much as you ; but was not 
the fortitude of the episcopalian martyrs, in Scot- 
land, in the reign of Charles II. *, equally heroic ? 
and, comparing the demeanor of the Marian mar- 
tyrs in their sufferings, with the demeanor of the 
Elizabethan martyrs in theirs, will these suffer by 
the comparison ? 

I have already declared that these sanguinary 
executions cannot be justified; yet, it should not 
be forgotten, that similar guilt is justly imputable 
to many sovereigns, some of whom enjoy a con- 
siderable portion of historic fame; that there was 
not, at this time, a protestant country in Europe, in 
which similar executions did not take place ; or 
one, among the primitive reformers, by whom re- 
ligious persecution was not justified; and that some. 



* Laing's History of Scotland, book vii. & viii. 



210 MARY. [Letter 

who were executed in the reign of queen Mary for 
heresy, might have been executed for treason : — 
other sovereigns, more politically, but certainly not 
more justly, converted what they termed heresy 
into treason, and punished the convicted heretic, 
not as an heretic, but as a traitor. 

You begin your account of the reign of Mary by 
informing us, that " the Suffolk men were the first 
" who declared for queen Mary; that the protestant 
" religion had taken root among them ; and that they 
" had obtained a promise from her, that no altera- 
" tion should be made in the religion which her 
" brother had established." Doctor Lingard has 
sufficiently shown that no such promise was made. 
Mr. John Gage, in his " History and Antiquities 
" of Hengrave in Suffolk J' — the work of a gentle- 
man and a scholar, — has inserted Mary's proclama- 
tion to the men of Suffijlk : it contains no such 
promise ; and they refer to none, in the long peti- 
tion which they afterwards presented to Mary in 
favour of their religion. 

I have now to mention an instance, in which, to 
aggravate the conduct of queen Mary's government, 
and the odium which you think it should bring upon 
the roman-catholics, you introduce a perfect fancy 
piece. You tell us, that, " on the day on which 
" Ridley and Latimer suffered at Oxford, the duke 
of Norfolk dined with Gardiner; and that the 
" dinner was delayed some hours, till the bishop's 
'' servant arrived from Oxford, post-haste, with 
" tidings that he had seen fire set to them | that 



XIV.] FOX. 211 

Gardiner went exultingly to the duke of Norfolk 
" with the news, and said, ' Now let us go to din- 

ner;' that, before he rose from table he was 
^* stricken with a painful disease, and being carried 
" to his bed, lay there in intolerable torments for 
" fifteen days," . . . and died. This tale was quickly 
refuted. The author of Fox's life, in the Bio- 
graphia Britannica, mentions it " among the many 

facts, in the relation of which Mr. Fox is not to 

be depended upon." — " To disprove this tragi- 
" cal story, it may be sufficient to observe, that 
" Gardiner appeared in the house of lords after he 
" is reported to have been seized with the mortal 

distemper; and the old duke of Norfolk had been 
" dead above a year, when Fox makes him at din- 
" ner with the bishop of Winchester; for he died 
" at Framlergham Castle, September 1554, and was 
" succeeded by his grandson, who could not then 
" be an old duke, as the story says. As to Gardiner, 
" he died of the gout, and not of a suppression of 
" urine,asFox says." — ^The important epithet "o/(^," 
by which the duke of Norfolk is described, you 
omit. — The falsehood of the story was noticed by 
doctor Lingard * ; still it found its place in the first 
edition of your work. Articles afterwards appeared 
in different newspapers, showing the falsehood of 
Fox's narrative : you have, however, retained it in 
your second edition ; — and long may it there remain, 
as proof of the little reliance that should be placed 
on those writers, who place their trust in Fox. 

* Note(D.) p. 100 k 106. 
P 2 



212 FATHER PERSONS. [Letter 

You collect several contumelious expressions, 
which father Persons, in his Examination of your 
favourite author, has applied to many of the suf- 
ferers in the reign of queen Mary. Supposing your 
representation of them to be accurate, I sincerely 
condemn them; but are they as objectionable as 
those which father Fox, — you have informed us, 
that queen Elizabeth distinguished him by that ap- 
pellation,— or, (I am sorry to add), — as those which 
you yourself, throughout your work, incessantly 
apply to us? I learn from you, that father Persons 
calls the generality af the sufferers " contemptible 
" and pitiful rabblement, . . . obscure and unlearned 
" fellows, . . . noxious, wilful beasts, ... artificers, 
" spinsters, and the like people." I wish father 
Persons had used no offensive expression : " Res 
" est sacra miser:'' the sufferings, — I willingly 
add, — the unjust sufferings of those, to whom he 
applies them, should have led him, whatever were 
his own opinion of the merits of their case, to 
mention them with tenderness. But how do you 
speak of us and our religion? There scarcely is a 
chapter, in either of your two volumes, which does 
not contain some expressions much more oppro- 
brious than any used by father Persons. It should 
also be taken into account, that father Persons wrote 
in the days of fierce controversy ; that he had be- 
fore his eyes the racks and the gibbets, by which 
his brethren in faith had suffered, were then suf- 
fering, or were to suffer. Does not this greatly 
extenuate the bitterness of his pen?— Fow write in 



XIV.] MODERN CONCILIATION. 2i;5 

an age of temper and philosophy ; — ^^when decency 
and politeness have banished polemic abuse fix)m all 
the liberal parts of society; when oblivion of past 
animosities is universally recommended ; when the 
mention of irritating subjects is avoided ; when all 
denominations of christians wish for good humour, 
for mutual forbearance and charity ; when some of 
the most amiable and most wise of your contempo- 
raries have advocated the abolition of the penal code 
against the roman-catholics ; when those, who think 
that the time for it is not arrived, avow their wish 
for its arrival, and ardently and anxiously exhort 
both parties to goodwill, to kindness, to all that 
can sooth, and all that conciliate — In the m.idst 
of this general disposition to unity, — you, — a gentle- 
man and a scholar, — have coolly and deliberately 
compiled a thousand pages, admirably calculated to 
revive past animosities, to inflame prejudice, to per- 
petuate discord ; and, — by holding in full view all 
that you think likely to injure us, and concealing 
almost all that you think likely to do us honour, — 
have endeavoured to ruin our moral and religious 
clwacter, and to hold us to our fellow-subjects as 
an abomination. In this, where is wisdom, where 
is good policy, where is charity ? How different is 
it from the conduct and the manners, — I will not 
say of Pitt, of Fox, of Burke, of Canning, — of our 
most honourable and most estimable adversaries, 
lord Liverpool in the upper, and Mr. Peele in the 
lower, house ! How different is the spirit of Your 
Book from that which animated our sovereign, when 

P 3 



214 MODERN CONCILIATION. [Letter 

he invited the duke of Norfolk, — a man, who does 
honour to men ; but a member of that religious 
community which it pleases you to vilify, — to offi- 
ciate at his coronation ? which led him to carry the 
olive branch to Ireland ? which led him to sanction 
the act for dispensing with the earl marshal's obli- 
gation of taking the oath of supremacy ? and the 
act for reversing the attainder of lord Stafford ? 
For these exertions of kindness, of enlarged wis- 
dom, and of liberal policy, eight millions of his 
majesty's British subjects bless his name: — there is 
not one of them who does not read your book with 
every feeling of insulted integrity: — and so confi- 
dent are they of the universal goodwill of their 
fellow- subjects to them, that they are quite assured 
that, if you should offer the services of your pen to 
any of those, who, in either house, oppose, or rather 
seek to postpone catholic emancipation, — ^half-a- 
dozen members in both houses would not be found 
who would accept your offer. — " The time is gone 

by," — would be the almost unanimous voice 
" no good subject now reads with pleasure any 
" abuse of the roman-catholic church, or its mem- 
" bers. Take it to the admirers of father Fox ! his 
" mantle has descended to you ! But don't wear 

it! you are qualified for much better things." 



XIV.J 



CRANMER. 



215 



XIV. 2. 

Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Latimer. 

That archbishop Cranmer and bishop Latimer 
were guilty of high treason, by an active co-opera- 
tion, in the attempt of the duke of Northumberland, 
to place lady Jane Grey on the throne, to the ex- 
clusion of Mary, their lawful sovereign, and of the 
princess Elizabeth, the presumptive heir, is uni- 
versally allowed. My opinion, that the sentence 
which, after their treason had been pardoned, con- 
demned them to the flames for heresy, was execra- 
ble, I have explicitly averred in my Historical 
" Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish 
" Catholics I now repeat it. And, in respect to 
Cranmer, I also willingly repeat, that his protection 
of the princess Mary, from the fury of her father ; his 
exertions to save sir Thomas More, bishop Fisher, 
and lord Cromwell ; his long resistance to the 
passing of the six sanguinary articles ; and his en- 
couragement of literature, are entitled to a high 
degree of praise : no person can give it more wil- 
lingly than I do, or wish more sincerely that his 
failings should rest interred with his bones. But 
when he is described as a model of virtue, and 
every effort of composition is used to exalt him, at 
the expense of the roman-catholics and their re- 
ligion, and, by highly-coloured relations of his 
p 4 



216 CRANMER [Letter 

virtues and sufferings, to raise a storm of public 
indignation against us ; — then, 

Facit indignatio versum, — 

And I must ask some questions. 

Although he adopted the Lutheran principles so 
early as his residence in Germany, on the business 
of the divorce, he yet continued, during the fifteen 
subsequent years of Henry's reign, in the most 
public profession of the catholic religion, the article 
of the supremacy of the pope alone excepted ; — 
was this justifiable before God or man ? 

Although, when he was consecrated archbishop 
of Canterbury, he took the customary oath of obe- 
dience to the see of Rome, did he not, just before 
he took it, retire into a private room, and protest 
against it? — was this honourable? 

Although he subscribed, and caused his clergy 
to subscribe, the six articles, the third and fourth 
of which enjoined celibacy to the clergy, and the 
observance of the vow of chastity, was he not mar- 
ried, and did he not continue to cohabit with his 
wife ? — was not this dissimulation ? 

Although he knew Anne Boleyn was under no 
pre- contract of marriage, did he not, to use bishop 
Burnet's expression, extort from her, standing, as 
she then did, on the very verge of eternity, a con- 
fession of the existence of such a contract? — was 
not this culpable subserviency to his master's cruel- 
ties ? was it not prevailing on the unhappy woman 
to die with a lie upon her lips ? 



XIV.] AND LATIMER. 217 

Was he not instrumental in bringing Lambert, 
Anne Askew, Joan Bocher, Van Parr, and others, 
both catholics and anabaptists, to the stake ? 

Did he not make too successful exertions ta in- 
duce the infant Edward to sign the sentence for 
Joan Bocher's condemnation ? 

Was he not, in all these instances, guilty, both of 
the theory and practice of religious persecution ? 

Did he not, previously to Henry's marriage with 
Anne of Cleves, declare, that the negotiations for 
her marriage, with a prince of the house of Lor- 
raine, were not a lawful impediment to her mar- 
riage with Henry ? yet, did he not, within six 
months after the marriage, declare, that they had 
created such an impediment ? — was not this a deli- 
berate and solemn untruth? Did he not then 
solemnize the monarch's adulterous marriage with 
lady Katharine Howard? — was not this a sacrilege? 

And, finally, notwithstanding the undoubted 
rights of the princesses Mary and Elizabeth to the 
throne, did he not, on the death of their royal 
brother, strive to exclude them from it, and to 
place lady Jane Grey upon it ? — was not this both 
ingratitude and high treason ? 

Can you justify his conduct in any one of these 
instances, without incurring the flagrant guilt of 
making " vice, virtue ?" 

Still, the sentence which, after he had been par- 
doned for his treason, condemned him to the flames 
for heresy, was, — I repeat the word, — execrable. 
His firmness under the torture, to which it consigned 
-H-p 5 



218 CRANMER [Letter 

him, has seldom been surpassed : it presents an 
imposing example, and we then willingly forget 
what history records against him. But when we 
read in the BiograpJiia Britannica, and in other 
works, that " he was the glory of the English 
" nation, and the ornament of the reformation 
and prejudice against the roman-catholics is, by 
these representations of his virtues, sought to be 
aggravated, — his misdeeds rush on our recollection ^ 
we are astonished at the effect of party spirit, and 
the intrepidity of his biographers and encomiasts. 

As to Latimer, whom you so highly celebrate ; — 
was he not more remarkable for inconsistency, than 
almost any other man with whose biography you 
are acquainted? Was he not first known by his 
attack upon the doctrines of Melancthon, and the 
other German reformers ? then by his advocation 
of these doctrines ? then by his rejection of them, 
in obedience to the commands of Wolsey ? then 
by his re-assumption of them? then by his second 
rejection of them, and his craving pardon for them, 
on his knees, to sooth Henry VIII ? then by his 
second re-assumption of them in the reign of 
Edward VI ? Was he not actively and promi- 
nently engaged in the treasons against Mary ? Is 
such a man a hero ? You are a classical scholar ; 
but surely, when you panegyrised Latimer, you 
had not in your mind the saying of the antient, 
— that when, in any nation, exuberant praise of a 
mediocrity of virtue became common, the exist- 
ence in it of real virtue becomes questionable. 



XIV.] AND LATIMER. 219 

Compare his conduct with that of More, Fisher, 
or any of the three hundred persons who suffered 
death under your penal laws. 

Crimination is not my disposition ; I trust it is 
not my character : on this occasion, you, and 
those whom you have condescended to copy, (for 
I am sensible they are greatly your inferiors,) have 
forced it on me. Now, therefore, after hearing 
what I have been thus forced to say, permit me to 
ask, whether, in your opinion, those who provoke 
discussions of the lives and characters of the two 
prelates I have mentioned, are real friends to their 
memories ? 

I possess a picture-book for children, published 
by an eminent protestant clergyman, now living, in 
which the fires of Smithfield are vividly repre- 
sented. Is not this most imprudent ? And, as 
it contains no representations of the racks, the 
gibbets, or the fires, by which the roman-catholics 
suffered, in the reigns of queen Elizabeth and her 
three successors, is not the representation both 
partial and unjust ? It is time that this wretched 
ribaldry should cease. I make you 'the same offer 
as doctor Milner made to the late doctor Sturges : 
—Let protestants cease to reproach the roman- 
catholics with Mary's fires, and romati- catholics 
shall be equally silent on the sanguinary code of 
Elizabeth, and the savage executions under it. 



2-20 



MARY. 



[Letter 



XIV. 3. 

Character of Queen Mary's Reign. 

You boldly term it ea:ecrable : I hope that, 
when you wrote this word, you had not read doctor 
Lingard's account of it, and the excellent summary 
and observations by which his account of it is con- 
cluded. If you had, it would appear to me wonder- 
ful that you should express yourself in the manner 
you have done. The whole passage is too long for 
insertion ; I shall transcribe the first page. 

" The foulest blot on the character of this queen 

is her long and cruel persecution of the reformers. 
" The sufferings of the victims naturally begat an 
" antipathy to the woman by whose authority they 
" were inflicted. It is, however, but fair to recol- 
" lect, what I have already noticed, that the extir- 
" pation of erroneous doctrine was inculcated as 
" a duty by the leaders of every religious party. 
" Mary only practised what tkei/ taught. It was her 
" misfortune, rather than her fault, that she was 

not more enlightened than the wisest of her 
" contemporaries. 

" With this exception, she has been ranked by 

the more moderate of the reformed writers 
" among the best, though not the greatest of our 
" princes. They have borne honourable testimony 

to her virtues : have allotted to her the praise 
" of piety and clemency, of compassion for the 
" poor, and liberality to the distressed ; and have 



XIV.] MARY. 221 

recorded her solicitude to restore to opulence the 
" families that had been unjustly deprived of their 
" possessions by her father and brother, and to pro- 
" vide for the wants of the parochial clergy, who 

had been reduced to penury by the spoliations of 
" the last government. It is acknowledged, that 
" her moral character is beyond reproof. It ex- 
" torted respect from all ; even from the most viru- 
** lent of her enemies. The ladies of her house- 

hold copied the conduct of their mistress ; and 
** the decency of Mary's court was often mentioned 
" with applause, by those who lamented the dis- 

soluteness which prevailed in that of her suc- 
" cesser." 

To the eternal praise of the Irish roman-catholics 
be it remembered, that, in the reign of queen Mary, 
they totally abstained from persecution. — " In the 
" reign of queen Mary," says sir William Parnel, 

though the religious feelings of Irish catholics, 
" and their feelings as men, had been treated with 
** very little ceremony during the two preceding 

reigns, they made a wise and moderate use of 
" their ascendancy. They entertained no resent- 
" ment for the past, they raised no plans for fu- 

ture domination. — The Irish roman-catholic 
" BIGOTS ! ! — The Irish roman-catholtcs are 

" THE ONLY SECT THAT EVER RESUMED POWER, 
*^ WITHOUT EXERCISING VENGEANCE '*." 



Historical Apology. 



222 



[Letter 



LETTER XV. 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

SIR, 

WE now reach the most important reign in the 
histories both of your church and mine since the 
reformation. I shall mention in this letter, — L The 
establishment of the protestant religion in the reign 
of queen Elizabeth ; and notice some statements 
and observations respecting it in " the Book of the 
" Church:" — IL Then insert a summary of the laws 
passed in her reign against the roman-catholics : — 
in. Then state the executions of the roman-catholics 
under the sanguinary part of this code : — IV. Then 
consider the arguments offered in justification of 
these executions, from the general disloyalty of 
the roman-catholics: — V. From their persecuting 
principles : — VI. And from their alleged plots : — 

VII. I shall then notice what you entirely omit 
mentioning, their exemplary conduct while Eng- 
land was threatened by the Spanish Armada :• — 

VIII. And conclude the letter with observations on 
some other charges contained in your letter. 

XV. 1. 

The Establishment of the Protestant Religion in the 
Reign of Queen Elizabeth. — Observation on some 
Statements respecting it in " the Book of the Church" 

You begin the chapter, which 1 now have 
under consideration, by informing us, that Eliza- 



XV.] ELIZABETH. 223 

" beth's life had been in imminent danger during 
her sister's reign and by noticing the seve- 
" rity with which she had been treated." But 
can you read the evidence produced by doctor Lin- 
gard of the concurrence of Elizabeth in Wyat's 
treason, and the earl of Devonshire's conspiracy, 
without believing her guilt? Can you say, that 
the evidence for it is not stronger than that upon 
which she caused the unfortunate Mary of Scot- 
land to be executed ? You then inform us, that 
the cruelties of the preceding reign were regarded 
with abhorrence by all, except those who had 
been instrumental in them.'' The number of 
those must have been extremely small ; justice, 
therefore, forbids that these cruelties should be im- 
puted to the general body of catholics, and calls 
upon you to retract, in the next edition of your 
work, your repeated intimations to the contrary in 
the present. 

Notwithstanding the dislike of Elizabeth, which 
I must necessarily feel, I have never read Heylin's 
account of her triumphant progress from the tower, 
without participating in that brilliant hour of joy. 
To see the descendant of a hundred kings, in the 
prime of life, and adorned with every accomplish- 
ment, thus suddenly pass, amidst a general and 
jubilant multitude, from a prison to a throne, is one 
of the brightest scenes that history displays. Most 
feelingly do I enter into it, and forget, at the mo- 
ment, the multiplied miseries which it brought^ 
* Vol. V. c. 1. 



224 ELIZABETH. [Letter 

almost immediately afterwards, on numbers of 
those whose memories I must ever revere. 

But did not the duty, which you owed to his- 
tory, require that you should mention the loyal 
conduct of the leading roman-catholic clergy and 
laity on the accession of Elizabeth to the throne of 
England ; and contrast it with the conduct of the 
protestant clergy and laity on the accession of 
Mary ? Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, and most 
of those who took a leading part in the religious 
innovations in the reign of Edward VL supported 
the pretension of lady Jane Grey against their 
lawful sovereign. Northumberland's rebellion in 
favour of lady Jane was succeeded by Wyat's; and 
many of the leaders of each were protestants. At 
the moment of Mary's decease, both houses of 
parliament were sitting. Information of the event 
being brought to the house of lords, they sent 
a message to the house of commons, requesting 
their attendance. When the commons arrived, 
Heath, the lord chancellor, the archbishop of York, 
(the see of Canterbury being then vacant), an- 
nounced the event ; he observed, that the succes- 
sion of the crown belonged of right to the princess 
Elizabeth, and that she should be instantly pro- 
claimed queen of England. The proclamation of 
her title immediately took place; first, in West- 
minster Hall, before the assembled lords and com- 
mons, and then, at the same place, before the lord 
mayor, the aldermen, and the companies of the ' 
city. The news reached the princess at Hatfield : 



XV.] ELIZABETH. 225 

she proceeded to London. At Highgate she was 
met by all the roman- catholic bishops : all, except 
Oglethorpe, the bishop of Carlisle, by whom she 
was crowned, refused to assist at the ceremony of 
her coronation. They considered it to be cer- 
tain, either that she would not take or would not 
observe the oath, which the kings of England took 
at their coronation, — "to maintain the laws, honour, 
" peace and privileges of the church, as in the time 
" or grant of king Edward the Confessor." But 
the bishops did not make the smallest opposition 
to her coronation ; they immediately did homage to 
her, and acknowledged her title to the crown. 
They afterwards saw her break her coronation oath, 
and establish the protestant church on the ruins of 
the national religion. At these measures they 
sighed ; but they sighed in silence ; not a single act 
of a treasonable, a seditious, or even a disaffected 
tendency was ever imputed to their conduct upon 
this occasion. 

May I not also ask, whether historic truth did 
not require you to mention the violence which the 
court party found it necessary to use in the election 
of members to serve in the first parliament which 
sat in the reign of queen Elizabeth ? Five candi- 
dates were nominated by the court to each borough, 
and three to each county ; and, by the authority of 
the sheriffs, the members were chosen from among 
these candidates. Can it be said, that, with a house 
of commons thus constructed, the parliament which 



226 ELIZABETH. [Letter 

established the reformation, was constitutionally 
formed ? 

Did not historic truth also require, that you 
should mention the opposition of the clergy to the 
legal establishment of the protestant faith ? and 
that all the bishops, both the houses of convocation, 
and both the universities, strenuously objected to it? 
These are important facts : was it proper to sup- 
press them ? 

You assert, that " the policy of the romanists 
" fortunately accorded with the views of govern- 
" ment ; for that, when it was perceived how well 
" and easily the places of the deposed bishops had 
" been supplied, the party changed their system, 
" and determined to retain "what benefices they held 
at the expense of outward coTtformity, thinking 
the best service they could render to the papal 
cause, was to keep possession of their posts, in 
" the hope and expectation of better times. The 
" double purpose would thus be answered, of keep- 
" ing protestant ministers out, and secretly fost- 
" ering in their parishioners a predilection for all 
" the old superstitions ; and their policy was, by 
" this means, reconciled with their interests. With 
" such unanimity did they act upon this deceitful 
" system, that, of 9,400 beneficed clergy, only 1 77 
resigned their preferments, rather than acknow- 
ledge the queen's supremacy 
The charge which you bring against the roraan- 
catholic clergy in this place, is altogether un- 



XV.] ELIZABETH. 227 

founded. The outward conformity of which you 
accuse them, was never practised by them : no 
roman-catholic clergyman, who retained his benefice, 
could either officiate as minister, or take the oath of 
supremacy, without incurring the guilt of apostacy, 
both in his own opinion and feelings, and in the 
opinion and feeling of the whole catholic world. 
If he had urged, in his defence, that he did it with 
the deceitful views you insinuate, his conduct would 
have been more strongly reprobated. I believe 
the whole of your statement to be a fable ; I never 
heard the charge which it intimates, until I found 
it in your work : it remains for you to prove the 
facts, or produce the authorities, upon which you 
make the assertion. 

I conjecture, that, in the hurry of composition, 
you have substituted an occasional conformity of 
your own imagination, for one of a very different 
nature, which, for some time, was practised by 
some lay roman-cathoUcs, These, to avoid the 
dreadful penalties of recusancy, attended the ser- 
vice in the protestant churches on Sundays, but 
without professing themselves to be protestants, 
and without participating in the service further than 
by mere personal attendance upon it. On the law- 
fulness of this proceeding, a considerable difference 
prevailed, from the first, among the English catho- 
lic divines: it continued till the year 1562, when 
some of the theologians, assembled at the council 
of Trent, were consulted upon it, and pronounced 

Q 2 



228 ELIZABETH. [Letter 

it unlawful*. Before this time, both cardinal 
Allen and father Persons had declared against it, 
in the most explicit manner ; and each had pub- 
lished a treatise in support of his opinion. 

I am not surprised by your assertion, that, of 
9,400 ecclesiastical incumbents, 177 only resigned 
their preferments, on the accession of queen Eliza- 
beth, as I have met with this assertion in several 
respectable authors ; but an attentive considera- 
tion of it, has convinced me that it is erroneous. 
Wood t informs us, that, " after the catholics had 
left the university of Oxford, upon the alteration 
of religion, it was so empty, that there was very 
seldom a sermon preached in the university 
church. The university," he adds, " seemed 
*' to be destroyed." So lately as 1563, the speaker 
of the house of commons complained, that *' many 
" of the schools and benefices were seized, the 
" education of youth disappointed, and the succours 
" for knowledge cut off. This," said the speaker, 
" I dare aver, that the schools in England are 
" fewer than formerly by one hundred, and many 
" of them but slenderly stocked ; and this is one 
" reason, the number of men is so remarkably 
" diminished. The universities are decayed, and 
" great market towns are without either school 
" or preacher J." You know how frequently such 
representations occur in the histories of those times : 

* Dodd's Church Hist. vol. 2, p. 24. 

t Cited ill Dodd's Church Hist. vol. 2, p. 319. 

I Collier's Ecc. Hist. vol. 2, p. 480. 



XV.] ELIZABETH. 229 

could the fact have been as they represent it, if 
your assertion had been founded ? Besides,—-! have 
before me doctor Bridge water's Concertatio,^' 
published in 1 594 : he gives in it the names, and 
the rank or condition in life, of 1,200 roman- 
catholics, who had been deprived of their livings 
or estates, or had been imprisoned or banished for 
their religion, previously to the year 1588, the 
period when the persecution of the catholics began 
to rise to its greatest height. He does not include, 
in this list, those who suffered death for their reli- 
gion ; these he had mentioned, and had described 
their several sufferings in the former parts of his 
work. He declares, that he was far from having 
named all the sufferers, and that he had mentioned 
the names of those only, whose sufferings had come 
to his personal knowledge : many, whose names 
he mentions, died in prison, and some under sen- 
tence of death. Is not there ground, therefore, 
for questioning the truth of the assertions I have 
noticed? 

You mention, with praise, the moderation of the 
conduct of queen Elizabeth, in respect to the 
roman-catholics, at the beginning of her reign. 
I agree with you, in lauding the feelings which 
induced her to direct, that the supplication, — 
" From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all 

his detestable enormities, deliver us, O Lord ! " — 
should be omitted from the litany. I also think, 
that her directions, that the sacramental bread 
should be kept in the form of wafers ; and that the 

Q 3 



230 LAWS AGAINST [Letter 

language of the article, which affirmed the real 
presence, should be framed in ambiguous language, 
proceeded from a desire of making the pale of her 
new church as comprehensive as possible. May 
I be permitted to add, without offence, that the 
consideration which I have given to the history of 
queen Elizabeth has led me to suppose, that the 
queen was indifferent to all religions ; that her 
taste inclined to the roman- catholic, and her 
interest to the protestant; that Leicester, Cecil 
and Walsingham, her principal ministers, were 
influenced, in their opposition to the catholic re- 
ligion, both by inclination and interest ; that they 
had a strong bias towards the puritan faith and 
discipline ; and that they possessed, in a great 
degree, — a degree, perhaps, much greater than 
their sovereign, — the spirit of intolerance, which 
tarnished the character of the first reformers ? 



XV. 2. 

Summary of the Laws passed in the Reign of Queen 
Elizabeth against Roman-catholics, 

I SHALL first mention, as succinctly as possible, the 
principal laws which were passed against the roman- 
catholics during the reign of queen Elizabeth ; then 
show, in what manner they were executed. 

1. By an act passed in the Jirst year of her 
reigfiy and usually called the " Act of Supremacy,'' 
archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical officers 



XV.] ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 231 

and ministers, and generally all persons receiving 
the queen's fee, were required to take the oath of 
supremacy prescribed by it : such as refused were 
incapacitated from holding any office ; and all who 
denied the queen's supremacy were, for the first 
offence, punishable by forfeiture of goods and chat- 
tels ; for the second, subjected to the penalties 
of a premunire ; and, for the third, rendered guilty 
of high treason. 

It is proper to observe, in this place, that the 
oath of supremacy, prescribed by this act, was 
essentially different from the oath of supremacy 
in present use. By the latter oath, the person 
swears negatively, that no foreign prince or po- 
tentate hath any authority within this realm ; by 
the former, he swore affirmatively, that the queen 
was head of the church. The present oath is taken 
without scruple by the protestant dissenters ; and 
it was to favour them, that the negative form was 
adopted in the reign of William III. : the former 
oath was as inconsistent with the principles of the 
protestant dissenters, as it was with the principles 
of the roman-catholics. 

I beg leave to call your attention to this obser- 
vation, when you prepare a new edition of your 
work. 

2. By another act, passed in the Jirst year of 
queen Elizabeth, — then usually called the Act of 

Uniformity,'* — all ministers of the church were 
enjoined to use the Book of Common Prayer, under 
certain penalties 5 others were inflicted on those 

Q4 



232 LAWS AGAINST [Letter 

who spoke in derogation of it, or prevented its use : 
Those who absented themselves from church, were 
subjected to a forfeiture of one shilling to the poor 
for every Sunday upon which they should so absent 
themselves ; and of twenty pounds to the king, if 
they continued such absence for a month together ; 
and, if they kept in their house an inmate guilty 
of such absence, they were to forfeit ten pounds for 
every such month : Every fourth Sunday of absence 
was held to complete the month; and thus, in 
relation to these penalties, thirteen months were 
supposed to occur in every year. 

3. By an act passed in the Jifth year of the 
queen^ persons maintaining the authority of the 
pope, were subjected to the penalties of a premu- 
nire ; and ecclesiastical persons, fellows of colleges 
in the university, and officers of courts of justice, 
were compellable to take the oath of supremacy, 
under the same penalty of premunire for the first 
offence, and the penalties of high treason for 
the second : and persons who had said or heard 
mass, might have the oath tendered to them ; and 
their refusal of it was punishable by the same 
penalties. 

4. The act of the thirteenth of her majesty 
enacted, that persons who affirmed that queen Eliza- 
beth was not a lawful sovereign ; or that any other 
had a preferable title ; or that she was an heretic, 
schismatic, or infidel ; or that the right to the 
crown and the succession could not be determined 
by law ; and persons bringing or receiving bulls. 



XV.] ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 233 

briefs, or absolutions, from the pope, — were to be 
deemed guilty of high treason ; their aiders or 
abettors were made guilty of a premunire ; persons 
concealing them were punishable for misprision of 
treason ; and priests bringing Agnus Deis, or simi- 
lar articles, blessed by the pope, were subjected to 
premunire. 

The pecuniary mulcts for recusancy were rigidly 
required. The money thus raised from the catho- 
lics amounted to a large sum : it was chiefly levied 
on the poor, the rich purchasing, from Elizabeth, 
dispensations from attendance at the protestant 
service. Mr. Andrews* computes the annual 
amount of the money, thus received by Elizabeth 
for dispensations, at twenty thousand pounds. 

5. The act of the twenty -third of queen Elizabeth 
subjected all persons, pretending to have power to 
withdraw her majesty's subjects from their alle- 
giance, or from the established religion, or moving 
them to promise obedience to the see of Rome, or 
any other potentate, to the punishment of high 
treason : Persons so withdrawn, their aiders and 
abettors, and persons knowing of such practices and 
not disclosing them, were rendered guilty of mis- 
prison of treason. Every priest saying mass, was to 
forfeit two hundred marks ; every person hearing 
it, was to forfeit one hundred ; and each was to be 
imprisoned for a year, and till he had paid the 
fine. This statute also aggravated the penalties of 
recusancy, and contained other severe inflictions. 



* Continuation of Henry's Hist. vol. 2, p. 35. 



234 COURT OF [Letter 

6. The still severer act of the twenty- seventh year 
of her majesty^ s reign, enacted, i . that all Jesuits, 
seminary and other priests, within the realm, should 
depart out of it, under pain of being judged traitors, 
and suffering death, as in the case of treason 5 and 
Jesuits, seminary and other priests, coming into 
the realm, were subjected to the same penalties : 

2. Persons receiving or maintaining them, were to 
be adjudged felons, without benefit of clergy : 

3. Persons sending money to the seminaries, or to 
any of their inmates, were subjected to the penal- 
ties of a premunire : 4. And persons knowing of 
any such priest, and not discovering him within 
twelve days, were to be fined and imprisoned at 
the king's pleasure. — It should be observed, that 
the punishment of premunire^ mentioned in this 
and the other statutes, to which I have referred, 
was, that, from the time of conviction, the convict 
should be out of the protection of the king, and 
his lands and goods forfeited to him ; and that his 
body should remain at the king's pleasure. 

7. To these inflictions we must add, the court of 
high commission^ established by queen Elizabeth, 
under the provisions of an act passed in the first 
year of her reign. Agreeing in little else, Hume* 
and Neale t perfectly accord in their accounts of 
the unconstitutional nature and arbitrary rules of 
this tribunal, and of the enormities of its proceed- 
ings. " It was," says the former of these writers, 
" a real inquisition, attended with all the iniquities 

* Hist, of England, c. 12. 

t History of the Puritans, vol. 1, p. 10. 



XV.] HIGH COMMISSION. 235 

as well as cruelties inseparable from that tribu- 
" nal." It was aimed against all dissenters from 
the established religion ; but the roman-catholics 
were the principal sufferers under it. Permit me 
to express some surprise, that I do not find, in the 
present chapter of your work, a single word of 
bitter condemnation of the institution of this un- 
constitutional, cruel, and iniquitous tribunal. 

You say, that " the proceedings of Elizabeth's 
" government, both towards the papists and puri- 
" tans, were grounded upon these principles: that 
** conscience is not to be constrained, but won by 

force of truth, with the aid of time, and use of all 
" good means of persuasion ; and that cases of con- 
" science, when they exceed their bounds, and 
" grow to be matter of faction, lose their nature ; 
" and however they may be coloured with the pre- 
" tence of religion, are then to be restrained and 

punished." 

But, — had faction been proved against any, when 
the first laws against recusancy were published; 
or when the court of high commission was esta- 
blished? Do you not, in this place, to justify the 
penalties for recusancy, unwaringly adopt the most 
objectionable tenet of intolerance : that theological 
opinion is to be the test of civil allegiance ? And 
thus make it just and fair to infer, from a per- 
son's holding a theological opinion contrary to the 
religion of the state, that his allegiance is unsound j 
and that he should, therefore, be punished for the 
unsoundness of it, by pains, penalties and disabili- 



230 LAWS AGAINST [Letter 

ties ? It was in consequence of the adoption of 
this principle, that the roman-catholics and presby- 
terians suffered in England during the reign of 
queen Elizabeth, and her three next successors; and 
that presbyterians suffered in Scotland during the 
reign of Charles II. You say the puritans grew to 
matter of faction : But which preceded the other? 
did the law precede the faction, or the faction pre- 
cede the law ? 

You treat the points in difference between the 
established church and puritans as trifles; or, as 
you call them, after Calvin, tolerable fooleries." 
But who is to be the judge, in these cases, of what 
is important, and what is trifling and foolery ? If 
you say the state,— then the Roman magistrate 
justly punished the christians for what he considered 
their trifling and foolish non-conformity to the 
pontifical law of Rome. If you deny this power to 
the Roman state, but ascribe it to the English par- 
liament, I call upon you to declare the ground of 
this distinction : if it is, because the latter had the 
Bible, which the Roman state had not, I ask you, 
why the puritan interpretation of the Bible should 
not be thought as good as that of the establishment? 

Elizabeth, you intimate, foresaw danger in the 
principles of the puritans. But do principles, be- 
fore they come into action, justify actual perse- 
cution? — Besides, — did the principle of the puritans 
amount to more than the principle professed by all 
protestants as the basis of their religion, — that they 
acknowledge no divine law but the scriptures; no 



XV.] NON-CONFORMISTS. 237 

interpreter of them but the understanding and 
conscience of the individual who peruses them ? 

You mention some cahimnies and hearsay stories, 
printed by two Spanish or Portuguese monks : but 
what are we to say to the calumnies against the 
roman-catholics, respecting the fire of London, 
Oates's plot, and " the hundreds of the ghosts of 
" protestants drowned by the rebels at Portadown 

bridge, who," as Temple avers in his history of the 
Irish rebellion, were seen in the river, bolt-upright, 
" and were heard to cry out for revenge on the Irish 

rebels. One of them," he says, was seen with 
" hands lifted up, and standing in that posture 

from the twenty-ninth of December to the latter 

end of the following month." 
Surely it now is full time that all this laughable, 
but mischievous trifling and foolery, should have 
an end! 

XV. 3. 

Executions of the Roman-catholics under the sanguinary 
part of the Penal Code of Queen Elizabeth, 

I HAVE shortly mentioned their sufferings under 
the enactments against recusancy, I now proceed 
to mention the inflictions under the sanguinary 
provisions of some of these acts. 

The total number of those who suffered capi- 
tally under them is calculated by Dodd, in his 
Church History, at one hundred and ninety-one : 
further inquiries by doctor Milner increase their 



238 SUFFERINGS OF THE [Letter 

number to two hundred and four. Fifteen of these, 
he says, were condemned for denying the queen's 
supremacy ; one hundred and twenty-six for the 
exercise of priestly functions ; and the others for 
being reconciled to the catholic faith, or aiding or 
assisting priests. In this list, no person is included 
who was executed for any plot, either real or ima- 
ginary, except eleven, who suffered for the pre- 
tended plot of Hheims, or Rome ; a plot, which, as 
doctor Milner justly observes, was so daring a for- 
gery, that even Camden, the partial biographer of 
Elizabeth, allows the sufferers to have been political 
victims. 

Such then being the number of sufferers, we 
must feel some surprise, when we read in Hume's 
history, that the severity of death was sparingly 
" exercised against the priests in the reign of queen 

Elizabeth or your eulogizing account of her 
tolerating principles and proceedings. 

It is observable, that the punishment of treason, 
by the law of England, is, that the offender should 
be drawn to the gallows, hanged by the neck, cut 
down alive, his entrails taken out while he is yet 
alive, and his head then cut off. Against the atro- 
cious circumstances attending this punishment, the 
humanity of the nation has so far interfered, that 
the offender has been generally permitted to remain 
hanging till he is dead ; but this mercy was often 
denied to the catholics, who suffered under these 
laws : often they were cut down alive ; in that state 
ripped open, and their entrails torn out. 



XV.] ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 239 

Besides the sufferers whom we have noticed, 
mention is made in the same work of ninety catho- 
lic priests or laymen, who died in prison during 
the same reign ; and of one hundred and five others 
who were sent into perpetual banishment. I say 

nothing," continues the writer, of many more, 

who were whipped, fined, (the fine for recusancy 
" was twenty pounds), or stripped of their property, 
" to the utter ruin of their families. In one night 
" fifty catholic gentlemen, in the county of Lan- 

caster, were suddenly seized and committed to 
" prison, on account of their non-attendance at 
" church. About the same time, I find an equal 
" number of Yorkshire gentlemen lying prisoners 
" in York Castle, on the same account ; most of 
" them perished there. These were, every week 
"for a twelvemonth together, dragged by main 

force to hear the established service performed in 
" the castle chapel." 

Incredible as it may appear to an English 
reader, it is unquestionably true, that several of 
those who suffered death, and several also who did 
not suffer capitally, were, previously id their trials, 
inhumanly tortured, — bi/ the common rack, by 
which their limbs were stretched with levers, to 
a length too shocking to mention, beyond the natu- 
ral measure of their frame ;■ — or, the hoop, called 
the scavengers daughter, within which they were 
placed, and their bodies bent until the head and 
feet met ; — or, by confinement in the Little-ease, 
a hole so small, that a person could neither stand. 



240 SUFFERINGS OF THE [Letter 

sit, or lie straight in it ; — or, the iron gauntlet, 
a screw that squeezed the hands until the bones 
were crushed ; — by needles thrust under the nails 
of the sufferers ; — or, by a long deprivation of sus-^ 
tenance. 

It adds to the atrocity of these inflictions, that, 
in several instances, when the sufferers were put to 
trial, there was no legal proof established ; and, "in 
some, not even any legal evidence offered to sub- 
stantiate the offence of which the parties were ac- 
cused. It may be almost asserted," says the late 
lord Auckland that, so late as the whole six- 
" teenth century, the first and most essential prin- 
" ciples of evidence were either unknown or totally 
" disregarded. Depositions of witnesses, forth- 
" coming if called, but not permitted to be con- 
" fronted with the prisoner ; written examinations 
" of accomplices living and amenable ; confessions 
*' of convicts lately hanged for the same offence ; 
" hearsays of those convicts, repeated at second - 
" hand from others ; all these formed so many 

classes of competent evidence, and were received 
" as such, in the most solemn trials, by very learned 
"judges. It was a common and very lucrative 

practice of the sheriffs, to return juries so pre- 
"judiced and partial, that, as cardinal Wolsey 
" observed, they would find Abel guilty of the 
" murder of Cain. The judge held his office and 
" income at the pleasure of the prosecutor ; and 
" was often actuated by an intemperate zeal for the 

* Principles of Penal Law. 



XVJ ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 241 

" support of the charge, as if his indignation of 
" the offence had stifled all tenderness towards the 
" supposed offender. 

Thus ignorant of the forms and language of 
" the whole process, unassisted by council, unsup- 
" ported by witnesses, discountenanced by the court, 
" and baited by the crown lawyers, the poor bewil- 

dered prisoners found an eligible refuge in the 

dreadful moment of conviction. 
Recourse was had to tortures, in order to 
supply this want of legal evidence to convict the 
accused ; and, at the same time, to furnish proofs 
against others. At the end of Cecil's Ea:ecution 
" of Justice '' is usually printed, " A Declaration 

of the favorable dealing of her majesty's com- 

missi oners, appointed for the examination of cer- 
" iayne traiterers^ and of tortures unjustly reported 
'* to he done upon them for matters of religion.^' 
It first appeared in print in 1583, in black letter, 
and was comprised in six pages quarto. It admits 
the use of torture in these cases, and states the 
grounds on which it was defended. It is inserted 
in the second volume of the Harleian Miscellany^ 
printed in 1808. 

As a fair specimen of the manner in which the 
laws, which I have mentioned, were executed 
against the roman-catholics, I shall insert an ac- 
count of the apprehension, trial and execution of 
father Campian. 

The best account of it is to be found in " Doctor 

Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, as 

R 



242 FATHER CAMPIAN. [Letter 

well secular as regular, and of other catholics^ of 
" both sea:eSy that have suffered Death in England 
" on religious accounts, fi^om the year of our Lord 
" 1577 lo 1684," ^^^'^ volumes %vo. first printed 
in 1741, and since often reprinted. A new edition 
of this work is now in the press of Mr. Ambrose 
Cuddon, Carthusian-street Charterhouse- square : 
it contains several engravings, showing the manner 
in which the tortures were inflicted ; these, it is 
impossible to behold without shuddering*'. Mr. 
Cuddon has inserted in this edition, a translation 
from the Latin of a diary kept by the reverend Mr. 
Rushton, a prisoner in the Tower, from 1580 to 
1585, in which he gives a description of the various 
modes of torture inflicted on the catholic prisoners 
during these four years ; and mentions the names 
of the persons upon whom they were inflicted. It 
was first published in Latin at the end of " Sanderus 
" de Schismate Anglicano, Coloniae Agrippinss, 
"1678, 8vot." 

* " The sight of the instruments of torture produced in 
" Gordon of Earlston, instant madness, by his horror and 
" despair." — Laing's History of Scotland, vol. 4, p. 141. — 
Does the Book of the Church" contain one word that 
reprobates the use of them on the poor innocent priests ? 

f See also " Doctor Bridgewater's Concertatio," already 
noticed in the text, and " the Arraignment of Edmund Cam- 
" pian, Sherwin, Bosgrave, Cottam, Bristow, Kimber, and 
" others, for high treason, 24 Elizabeth ;" first published in 
the " Phcenix Britannicus," and recently in " Gobbet's com- 

plete Collection of State Trials," vol. 1, p. 1050. See also 
*' Strype's Annals," vol. 2, c. 3, 4. p. 645, 646, 



XV.] FATHER CAMPIAN. 243 

On the 15th July 1581, father Campian was 
apprehended in a secret room in the house of a 
catholic gentleman. After remaining two days in 
the custody of the sheriff of Berkshire, he was con- 
veyed by slow journies to London, on horseback ; 
his legs fastened under the horse, his arms tied be- 
hind him, and a paper placed on his hat, on which 
were written the words, " Campian the seditious 
Jesuit,''^ in large capital letters. On the 25th, 
he was delivered to the lieutenant of the Tower. 
He was frequently examined before the lord chan- 
cellor, or other members of the council, and by 
commissioners appointed by them. He was re- 
quired to divulge what houses he had frequented ; 
by whom he had been relieved ; whom he had re- 
conciled, — when, which way, for what purpose, and 
by what commission he had come into the realm ; 
how, where, and by whom he printed his books. 
All these questions he declined to answer. In order, 
therefore, to extort answers from him, he was first 
laid on the rack, and his limbs stretched a little, 
to show him, as the executioners termed it, what 
the rack was. He persisted in his refusal ; — then, 
for several days successively, the torture was in- 
creased ; and, on the two last occasions, he was so 
cruelly torn and rent, that he expected to expire 
under the torment. Whilst upon the rack, he 
called continually upon God ; and prayed fervently 
for his tormentors, and for those by whose orders 
they acted. 

R 2 



244 FATHER CAMPIAN. [Letter 

In your fifteenth letter, you mention, that, " in 
the reign of Elizabeth, a public disputation was 
" appointed, not, as in Mary's reign, by burning 
" those who differed in opinion from the ruling 
power, but with full liberty of speech, and per- 
" feet safety for the romish disputants." While 
father Campian was in prison, a disputation took 
place between him and some protestant divines, ap- 
pointed for that purpose by government : the con- 
sequence to the dissentient from the ruling power, 
was the same as in queen Mary's reign, — within a 
few days after it took place, Campian was executed. 

On the 12th of November, he and his com- 
panions were indicted for high treason ; — the in- 
dictment stated, that, in the last March and April, 
" at Rheims, in Champagne, Rome, and other parts 
" beyond the seas, he had conspired the death of 
" her majesty, the overthrow of the religion pro- 
" fessed in England, the subversion of the state ; 

and that, for the attempt thereof, they had stirred 
" up strangers to invade the realm ; moreover, 
" that, on the 8th of the May following, they took 
** their journey from Rheims towards England, to 
" persuade and seduce the queen's subjects to the 
" romish religion, and obedience to the pope, from 
" their duties and allegiance to her highness ; and 
** that, on the ist of June, they arrived in this 
country for the same purposes." 
Aft^r the indictment was read, — *^ I protest to 
" God," said Campian, " and his angels, by heaven 



XV.J FATHER CAMPIAN. 245- 

and earth, and before this tribunal, — which I pray 
God may be a mirror of the judgment to come, — 
" that I am not guilty of these treasons, or any 
" other. To prove these things against me is im- 
" possible." 

The prisoners were then arraigned, and severally 
pleaded not guilty. 

On the 20th of November, they were put to the 
bar for trial. Six were arraigned with Campian j 
seven more arraigned on the following day: all, 
except one, were priests. When, according to 
custom, Campian was required to hold up his hand, 
— both his arms," writes a person present at his 
trial, " being pitifully benumbed by his often cruel 
" packings before, and having them wrapped in a 
" fur cuff, he was not able to lift up his hand so 

high as the rest did, and was required of him ; 
" but one of his companions kissing his hands, so 
" abused for the confession of Christ, took off his 
" cuff, and so lifted up his arm as high as he could, 
" and he pleaded ' not guilty,' as the rest did." 

The first witness produced by the crown, named 
Caddy or Craddock, deposed generally against all 
the prisoners, that, " being beyond the seas, he 
" had heard of the holy vow, made between the 
** pope and the English priests, for restoring and 

establishing religion in England; for which 
" purpose two hundred priests should come into 
" the realm. The which matter was declared to sir 
** Ralph Shelly, an English knight, and captain to 

li 3 



246 FATHER CAMPIAN. [Letter 

the pope; and that he would conduct an army 
" into England, for subduing the realm unto the 
" pope, and the destroying of the heretics. Whereto 

sir Ralph made answer, that he would rather 
" drink poison with Themistocles, than see the 
" overthrow of his country ; and added, that he 
" thought the catholics in England would first stand 

in arms against the pope, before they would join 

in such an enterprise." 
You must be amazed that such evidence could 
have been offered: evidence, in which nothing 
could be brought home to the prisoners ; and which, 
if it did prove any thing, proved only the good dis- 
position of the general body of the catholics to the 
government. 

The two next facts were the allegations of the 
queen's council, that Campian had conversed with 
the cardinal of Sicily and the bishop of Ross upon 
the bull of Pius V. The particulars of these con- 
versations were not mentioned, nor was the slightest 
evidence produced to show that they had taken 
place. 

The next fact charged on Campian was, that he 
travelled from Prague to Rome, and held a private 
conference with doctor Allen, to withdraw the 
people from their allegiance. No proof of either 
of these facts were offered : but Campian candidly 
admitted his journey, a conversation with doctor 
Allen, and his mission into this country ; but ob- 
served, that the sole object of it was to administer 



XV.] FATHER CAMPIAN. 247 

spiritual aid to the catholics ; and that cardinal Allen 
had strictly charged, nay, commanded him, not to 
meddle with matters of state or government. 

A letter written by Campian was then produced, 
in which he grieved for having mentioned on the 
rack the names of some roman-catholic gentlemen, 
by whom he had been entertained ; but comforted 
himself with the reflection, that he had never dis- 
covered any secrets therein declared. Campian re- 
plied, that every priest was bound by vow, under 
" danger of perpetual curse and damnation, never 
*' to disclose any offence or infirmity revealed to 

him in confession.'^ That, in consequence of 

his priesthood, he was accustomed to be privy to 
" divers men's secrets, — not such as concerned the 
" state or commonwealth, — but such as charged 

the grieved soul and conscience, whereof he had 
" power of absolution." 

The clerk then produced certain oaths, to be 
ministered to the people, for renouncing obedience 
to her majesty, and swearing allegiance to the pope ; 
which papers were said to have been found in the 
house, in which Campian had lurked. It does not 
however appear that any evidence was offered, either 
respecting the discovery of these papers, or the places 
in which they were said to have been found. Cam- 
pian observed, that there was no proof that he 
had any concern in those papers ; that many other 
persons, besides himself, had frequented the houses 
in which he was said to have lurked : so that there 
was nothing which brought the charge home to 

R4 



248 FATHER CAMPIAN. [Letter 

himself. As to administering an oath of any kind, 
he declared, that "he would not commit an offence 
" so opposite to his profession, for all the substance 

and treasure in the world." 
Finally came the searching charge. You 
" refuse," said the counsel for the crown, to 
" swear to the oath of supremacy."—*' I acknow- 

ledge," answered Campian, " her highness as 
«< my governess and sovereign; I acknowledge, be- 

fore the commissioners, her majesty, both de 
facto et de jure, to be my queen ; I confess an 

obedience due to the crown, as my temporal 
*' head and primate: — this I said then, this 1 say 
** now. As for excommunicating her majesty, — 
" it was exacted of me, — admitting that excommu- 

nicating were of effect, and that the pope had 
** sufficient power so to do, whether then I thought 
" myself discharged of my allegiance, or not? I 
*' said this was a dangerous question; and they, 

who demanded this, demanded my blood : but 
" I never admitted any such matter; neither ought 
** I to be wrested with any such suppositions. Well ! 
" since once more it need be answered, — I say, 

generally, that these matters are merely spiritual 
" points of doctrine, and disputable in schools ; no 
*' part of mine indictment, nor given in evidencej 

and unfit to be discussed in the king's bench. 
" To conclude : they are no matters of fact ; they 
" be not in the trial of the country : the jury 
" ought not to take any notice of them." 

The judge then proceeded to the other pri- 



XV.] FATHER CAMPIAN. 249 

soners : the evidence produced against them was of 
the same nature with that which was urged against 
Campian. The jury retired, and, after delibera- 
ting an hour, found them all guilty. 

On the first of the following December, Cam- 
pian was led to execution. He was dragged to it 
on a hurdle ; his face was often covered with mud, 
and the people good-naturedly wiped it off. He 
ascended the scaffold; — there, he again denied 
all the treasons of which he had been accused. He 
was required **to ask forgiveness of the queen:'* 
he meekly answered, " wherein have I offended 
"her? In this I am innocent; this is my last 

breath ; in this give me credit, — I have, and 
** I do pray for her.'' Lord Charles Howard 
asked him, **for which queen he prayed, — whether 
*' for Elizabeth the queen?" Campian replied, 
" Yes, for Elizabeth, your queen and my queen." 
He then took his last leave of the spectators, and, 
turning his eyes towards heaven, the cart was drawn 
away. His mild death, and sincere protestations 
" of innocence," says the writer from whence this 
account is taken, moved the people to such com- 

passion and tears, that the adversaries of the 
" catholics were glad to excuse his death." Hol- 
lingshed says, " Campian had won a marvellous 
" good report, to be such a man as his like was 
" not to be found, for life, learning, or any other 

quality that might beautify a man." — All 
" parties," says Mr, Chalmers, in his Biographical 



250 JESUITS [Letter 

Dictionary, allow him to have been a most ex- 
" traordinary man ; of admirable parts, an eloquent 
** orator, a subtle disputant, an exact preacher, 
" both in Latin and English, and a man of good 
" temper and address." 

" Certain it is,'* you say, that Campian and 
" his companions suffered for points of state, and 
" not of faith." I entreat you to peruse their 
trials ; you will find them in the first volume of 
the State Trials. I call upon you to mention a 
single instance of a crime against allegiance to the 
queen, which was proved against them. 

You insert a frightful account of the Jesuits. — 
Few persons, I believe, have considered the accusa- 
tions brought against that society, or their vindica- 
tions, with more attention, or greater impartiality, 
than myself. The result I have given to the public, 
in my " Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish, 
" and Scottish Catholics and in a separate publi- 
cation f. These 1 have more than once re-con; 
sidered, and I have found nothing said in them, in 
the defence or praise of the society, that I ought to 
recall. You conclude what you say respecting them, 
by informing us, that " the fourth and peculiar vow 

of the Jesuits placed them, as missionaries, at the ab- 

solute disposal of the Old Man of the Mountain,'* 
— alluding to the celebrated, and perhaps fabulous, 
Prince of the Assassins, mentioned by some of the 

* Chapter xxvi. 

t Historical Memoirs of the Society of Jesus, 8vo. 1823. 



XV.] MISREPRESENTED. 251 

historians of the crusades. *' The popes/' you 
proceed to say, richly deserved this title ' of the 

Man of the Mountain ;' for the principle of assas- 
** sination was sanctioned by the two most pow^erful 

of the catholic kings, and by the head of the 
" catholic church. It was acted upon in France 

and in Holland; rewards were publicly offered 
*^ for the murder of the prince of Orange ; and the 

fanatics, who undertook to murder Elizabeth, 
** were encouraged by a plenary remission of sins, 
" granted for this special service." 

Here, you first allude, I suppose, to the 
massacre on St. Bartholomew's day, ordered by 
Charles IX. But how can this massacre, or the 
murder of the prince of Orange, to which you after- 
wards refer, be justly imputed to any principle of 
the roman-catholic faith ? The plea of Charles IX. 
was, that the admiral de Coligni and his associ- 
-ation had been guilty of treason and rebellion, and 
were then actually engaged in treasonable and rebel- 
lious practices ; that, by these, they deserved death 
as traitors ; that they would have been condemned 
to suffer capitally, if the king had been powerful 
enough to bring them before a proper tribunal ; 
and that, as this was not in his power, the circum- 
stances of the case justified his putting them to 
death without a trial, by making it a necessary, and^ 
therefore, a justifiable act of self-defence. 

In this light he represented his conduct to the 
see of Rome, and the foreign courts. I reject the 



252 ASSASSINATION [Letter 

plea as much as yourself ; but is it surprising that, 
in the state of ferment and exaltation in which all 
minds then were, the plea should have been received 
by several ? Still, — how does this prove the princi- 
ple of assassination to be a tenet of the roman- 
catholic church ? In my last chapter I shall men- 
tion the order given by the episcopalian government 
of Scotland, for the general massacre of the non- 
conforming presbyterians. Does this, — does the 
massacre at Glenco, the massacre at Munster, the 
assassination of cardinal Beaton, or the assassination 
of archbishop Sharp, or the assassination of Francis 
duke of Guise, prove the principle of assassination 
to be a tenet of the protestant faith ? Far from me 
and mine be the weakness that receives such an 
argument; or the wickedness, that, rejecting it 
themselves, would wish to have it accredited by 
others. You remember the magnanimous speech 
of the duke of Guise to his huguenot assassin : 
" Your religion taught you to murder me ; mine 
teaches me to pardon you/' 
With respect to the murder of the prince of 
Orange :— that has nothing in common with assas- 
sination in the ordinary acceptation of that word. 
The prince had been tried as a rebel, and con- 
demned for contumacy. If he had professed the 
catholic religion, and conducted himself in the 
manner he had done towards a protestant sove- 
reign, would not this have been the case in every 
protestant state ? The consequence was, that an 



XV.] ABHORRED. 253 

order, (very usual in such cases, in the states on the 
Continent), was issued, through all the Spanish do- 
minions, offering a reward to any one who should 
execute the sentence. — What has this, I again ask, 
in common with the principle of assassination ? 

You say, that " the fanatics, who undertook to 
" murder Elizabeth, were encouraged by a plenary 
" remission of sins, granted for this special ser- 

vice." I deny the fact explicitly ; I call upon 
you to mention the names of those fanatics, or 
the name of any one of them, and to produce evi- 
dence of the grant of the remission of their sins. 
If you have in view cardinal Como's letter to 
Parry, read it and his trial ; then tell me can- 
didly, whether you think that Parry produced the 
slightest evidence, from which it could be reason- 
ably inferred, that either the pope or the cardinal 
was aware of any project of assassinating Elizabeth ? 
I beg leave to refer you to what I have written on 
this subject, in the " Historical Memoirs of the 
" English, Irish and Scottish Catholics 

In further proof of your charge of assassina- 
tion, you inform us, that Father Campian, in an 
" oration delivered at Douay, said : As far as con- 
" cerns thejesuits, we all, — dispersed in great num- 
" bers throughout the world, — have made a league 
" and holy oath, that, as long as any of us are alive, 
** all our care and industry, all our deliberations 
** and councils, shall never cease to trouble your 
** calm and safety." Permit me to observe to you, 

* Chapter xxxri, sect. 5. 



254 CAMPIAN'S LETTER [Letter 

that the document to which you refer, is not an 
oration delivered at Douay, but, as it is justly 
styled by Strype, Campian's letter to the privy 
** council, offering to avow and prove his catholic 
" religion before all the doctors and masters of 
" both universities, and requiring a disputation." 
This circumstance alone makes some difference ; — 
but it is more important, that the words, " to 

trouble your calm and safety," are an absolute 
interpolation. They do not occur in Strype or 
in doctor Bridgewater's version of the letter : 
" Omnes nos qui sumus de Societate Jesu per 

totum terrarum orbem, longe lateque diffusi, 
" sanctum fcedus i?iesse, ut curas quam nobis inje- 

cistiSy magno animo Jeramus, neque unquam de 
" vestrd salute desperemus, quamdiu ml unus quis- 
" quam de nobis super est, qui Tyburno X)estro 
^^fruatur, atque suppliciis mstris excarnificari, 
" carceribusque squalere et consumi possit'f.'^ 

* Strype's Annals, iii. App. 6. 

t Epistola Edmundi Campioni, sacerdotis Societatis Jesu, 
** ad Reginse Angliae Consiliarios, quae profectiones suse, in 
Angliam, institutum declarat, et adversaries in certamen 
provocat, ex Anglico sermone Latine tradita." Bridge- 
water's Goncertatio, p. 1, 2. 



XV.] 



MISREPRESENTED. 



25-5 



XV. 4. 

Justification of the Persecutions, on the ground of the 
traitorous Principles of the Foreign Seminarists, arid 
the general Disloyalty of the Roman-catholics. 

From the beginning of the reign of queen 
Elizabeth, until even the thirty-first year of the 
reign of his late majesty, no school, for the educa- 
tion of catholic youth in catholic principles, could 
be supported, without exposing both the masters and 
the scholars to the very heavy penalties of forfeiture 
of goods and chattels, with one year's imprisonment, 
for the first offence ; to the penalties of a premu- 
nire for the second ; and to death for the third. 
This made it absolutely necessary to establish 
foreign seminaries for educating persons foj the 
sacred ministry. 

You consider them as seminaries of disloyalty. 
IMr. Hume avers, in still stronger language, that 
" sedition, rebellion, sometimes assassination, were 
" the expedients by which the seminarists intended 
" to effect their purpose against their queen.'* To 
these atrocious charges, seven unquestionable facts 
may be opposed : — 1 . that, of two hundred catholics 
who suffered for their religion in the reign of queen 
Elizabeth, one only impugned her title to the crown : 
2. that they all, to the instant of their deaths, per- 
sisted in the most solemn and explicit denial of every 



25G PERSECUTIONS [Letter 

legal guilt, except the mere exercise of their func- 
tions : 3. that their accusers were uniformly persons of 
bad lives, and of the lowest character : 4. that there 
is not one instance, in which the tortures inflicted on 
them produced, either a confession of liis own guilt, 
or a charge of guilt on others : 5. that the barba- 
rous irregularity with which their trials were con- 
ducted has seldom been equalled : 6. that even this 
irregularity never furnished legal evidence of their 
commission of any legal treason, except, as we 
have already noticed, a mere exercise of missionary 
functions : 7, and that even this was seldom proved 
upon them by competent evidence. The perusal of 
their trials will convince you of the truth of these 
assertions. 

To what we have said, we should add the most 
solemn asseverations of doctor Allen, in his True 
" and modest Defence of the English Catholics 
" against a libel, intitled, the Execution of Justice 

in England, — that all conversations on subjects 
" of state or policy, were strictly prohibited to the 
" students in the foreign seminaries, and that they 
" were enjoined to abstain from them, and from 
" all interference in secular concerns, when they 
" should be employed in the English mission.'' 

I now request your candid opinion, whether you 
think there is any ground for your charge of dis- 
loyalty against the seminarists ? 

Permit me to add, that this completely repels 
your accusation, that the priests were executed for 



XV.J BY ELIZABETH. 257 

treason. That expression conveys an idea, that the 
treason upon which the missionaries suffered, was 
some act made treasonable by the antient law of 
the land, or by the statute of 25 of Edward III. 
commonly called the Statute of Treasons." Your 
readers certainly understand your expression in this 
sense j but not one of the missionary priests suf- 
fered for any act of this description. The only 
acts for which they suffered were those, which the 
statutes of Elizabeth had made treasonable, — as, 
denying her spiritual authority, remaining in or 
returning to England, or some other spiritual ob- 
servance. Now, if the priests had not remained in 
or returned to England, the English roman-catho- 
lics would have been without instruction, without 
the sacraments, and without the rites of their church. 
To remain in, or return to England was, therefore, 
the duty of the catholic priesthood ; and for some 
act of this religious duty, — but for no act of any 
other kind, — were they executed. Thus, if you 
say they were hanged and embowelled, not for being 
priests, but for being traitors, then, as their being 
priests was the sole cause of their being traitors, 
they were, in truth, hanged and embowelled for 
being priests 

* This is sir Walter Scott's judicious observation, in his 
edition of Dryden's works, vol. 3, p. 237, note xv. 

The justice of the execution of the priests, on the ground 
suggested in the text, was asserted by lord Burghley in a 
state paper, published by him in 1583, intitled, The Execu- 
" tion of Justice," inserted in the Harleian Collection. To 
this, cardinal Allen triumphantly replied, by his " True, 

S 



258 



PERSECUTIONS 



[Letter 



XV. 5, 

Justification of the Persecution of the Roman-catholics in 
the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, on the ground of the 
persecuting Principles and Practices of their Church. 

On this subject you write with great strength and 
eloquence, but without citing any authority. This 
defect I will supply, by confessing that the roman- 
catholics have sometimes been guilty of the crime, 
(for such I deem it), of religious persecution. But 
did not justice and candour require of you to admit 
the equal guilt, in this respect, of protestants ? 
Have not the protestants persecuted the roman- 
catholics, and even their fellow protestants, in every 
country in which they have obtained the ascend- 
ancy, as in Germany, Switzerland, Geneva, France, 
Holland, Sweden, Scotland and England? You 
mention the sanguinary executions of protestants in 
the Low-Countries, by the order of the merciless 
duke of Alva ; these I reprobate as much as yourself : 
but why are you silent on the executions, equally, and 
I believe, more sanguinary, of the roman-catholics 
by the order of Vandermerck and Sonoi in Belgium 
and Holland? or on the persecuting deeds and 
writings of Calvin, Beza and other reformers ? You 
mention the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day : 

sincere and modest Defence of Christian Catholics." The 
cardinal's publication was universally read and admired. 
The style is admirable : the learned Edmund Bolton called it, 
" A princely, grave and flourishing piece of natural and 
^* exquisite English.'* 



V.J BY ELIZABETH. 259 

— It is not to be justified, and not much to be exte- 
nuated ; but I agree with doctor Lingard, that it was 
not, as it has been generally represented, a work of 
long premeditation. It certainly had been pre- 
ceded by the massacres perpetrated in France by 
the calvinists upon the catholics, and their repeated 
burnings of churches and monasteries. Doctor 
Heylin^ mentions the calvinistic massacres of the 
catholic priests at Pamiers, Montauban, Hodez and 
other places. Why did you not mention these? 
Why were you silent on the cruelties exercised by 
the protestant episcopalians on the Scottish presby- 
terians, throughout the reign of Charles II., not- 
withstanding his solemn promise of toleration at 
Breda ? Can you read without horror Mr. Laing's 
account of them ? Or can you read without com- 
punction the sufferings of the English protestant 
non- conformists in the same reign ? In the preface 
to De Laune's '^Plea for Non-conformists," it is 
said that 8,000 of them perished in this persecution. 
Perhaps, when you read Mr. Laing's account t of 
" the treachery, and almost unexampled perjuries of 
the first ministers of the church and state of Scot- 
" land," — and of the absolute and undistin- 
" guished massacre voted by the privy council," and 
" of the warrant for it signed by the king," and of 
" the execution of it, — not inferior to the spirit 
" by which it was dictated," ^ — you may think that 

* Vol. 27, p. 163. 

t Laing, vol, 2, p. 83. 151. — and through the whole of 
book vu, & VIII. of his history. 



260 PERSECUTIONS [Letter 

the catholic massacre on St. Bartholomew's day 
has been equalled by more than one protestant 
enormity. 

I beg leave to ask you, whether you think it con- 
sistent with historic impartiality, to keep out of sight 
the outrages committed by protestants, while you 
bring forward, in the most glowing language, those 
committed by the roman-catholics ? Read doctor 
Milner's "fourth letter to doctor Sturges," his 
forty-ninth letter in his " End of Controversy," his 
" twenty-second letter to Mr. Grier," and the excel- 
lent letter in the Edinburgh Review " on the tole- 
ration of the first reformers ; then let me adjure you, 
as a christian and a gentleman, to say on which side 
the balance of religious persecution lies, — the ca- 
tholic or the protestant P Or what better reason 
there is to ascribe catholic persecutions to the catho- 
lic religion, than to ascribe protestant persecutions 
to the protestant? — Pardon me the solemnity of 
this address: it is known that nothing tends to 
prejudice the public mind in this country against 
the roman-catholics, so much as making it believed 
that the lawfulness, and even the duty of religious 
persecution, is one of the tenets of their creed. To 
this accusation, all who wish us evil never fail to 
resort. That you, a man of real learning, should 
attack us with such a weapon, gives me surprise and 
sorrow. 

But, Sir, — for the subject is so serious that 
I cannot yet quit it, — if you are not convinced that 
you share the guilt of religious persecution, at least 



XV.] BY ELIZABETH. 261 

equally with us, turn your eyes westward, and 
contemplate Ireland I ! ! 

There, — you will see a people to whom Nature 
has been profusely kind. She has blessed them with 
the most genial climate, the most fertile soil, the 
boldest coasts, the most navigable rivers; with 
strength, industry, energy, virtue and talent ! With 
all these blessings, they have, for three hundred 
years, been the most miserable nation in the habit- 
able globe ; and present, at this moment, a scene 
of appalling wretchedness ; — a wretchedness so 
bitter, so deep, and so extensive, that even the 
enemies of their name shudder at beholding it ; 
but, at the same time, a wretchedness formed by 
the original artificers of it with such fiendish skill 
and contrivance, that it seems almost beyond human 
ability to remove it. To what is this owing ? Let 
lord chancellor Clare answer in his own words, — 
The division of Ireland," says his lordship, be- 
tween those who adhered to the catholic, and 
" those who adhered to the protestant religion, is 
the grand schism, which has heen the bane and 
'pestilence of Ireland^ and rendered her a blank 
among the nations of Eur ope, 
Mentioning the persecutions of queen Elizabeth, 
you assert, that no church, no sect, no individual 
" even, had yet professed the principle of toleration." 
Now it had been repeatedly professed by writers of 
the roman- catholic church : Sir Thomas More had 
established it in Utopia; the fourth council of 
Toledo had declared, that **it was unlawful and 

s 3 



262 PERSECUTIONS [Letter 

" uncliristianlike to force people to believe, seeing 
" it is God alone who hardens and shows mercy to 
" whom he will/' — Neither saint Ambrose, nor 
" saint Martin," says Mr. Alban Butler, in his 
lives of those great men, would communicate with 

Ithacius, or those bishops who held communion 
" with him, because they sought to put heretics to 

death. — Saint Martin besought Maximus not to 
" spill the blood of the guilty ; saying, it was suf- 

ficient that they had been declared heretics, and 
" excommunicated by the bishops ; and that there 
" was no precedent of an ecclesiastical cause being 

brought before the secular judge." 
In all these instances, was not the true principle 
of religious toleration professed ? Were not those, 
who thus professed it, roman-catholics ? 

The doctrine of religious toleration is now so 
generally admitted, at least in theory, that it sur- 
prises me to find a person, who openly professes 
the doctrine of religious intolerance. Yet such 
persons are sometimes met with. Bishop Sparke, 
addressing himself to the synod of Canterbury, in 
July 1807, denounced the roman-catholics,"— 
who form at least one fourth of the population of 
the empire,—" as enemies of all laws, divine and 

human, and who, as such, should be driven from 
" our courts and armies^ You, in the chapter 
now before me, eulogize the celebrated John Fox ; 
you call him " the good old martyrologist you 
mention him as the only person who raised his 
voice against queen Elizabeth's persecution of the 



BY ELIZABETH. 263 

anabaptists. But, wliat was the persecution against 
which he raised his voice ? There is," (I tran- 
scribe your own citation of his words,) *' There is," 
he says, "imprisonment, there are chains, there are 
*' brandings and stripes, and even the gibbet : this 
" alone I earnestly deprecate, that you would not 
" suffer the fires of Smithfield, which, under happy 
auspices, have slept so long, should be again re- 
" kindled." — Surely, *'the good old martyrologist," 
as you call him, did not raise, in favour of tolera- 
tion, his voice very high. 

His " Acts and Monuments" have, from the time 
of their publication, been the great armory of the 
weapons wielded against the roman-catholics, to 
bring them and their religion into odium. An ex- 
cellent answer to them was published by father 
Persons. Another, is now publishing in numbers, 
by Mr. William Eusebius Andrews ; it shows great 
learning and great power of argument. It seemsr 
to be admitted, that doctor Milner triumphed in 
controversy with doctor Sturges ; I am confident 
Mr. Andrews's triumph over " the good old mai- 
tyrologist" will be equally complete. 

XV. 6. 

Justification of the Persecution of the Roman-catholics, in 
the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, from the alleged Plots 
against her. 

As a further excuse for the sanguinary acts of 
queen Elizabeth against the roman-catholics, you 

s 4 



264: ALLEGED PLOTS [Lette 

mention their alleged plots against her. I have 
discussed this charge in the Historical Memoirs 
of the English, Irish and Scottish Roman-catho- 
lics:'* I trust that I have satisfactorily shown, that 
there is not one which can, with any justice, be 
charged upon the catholics. But, if all that is said 
of their supposed guilt were completely true, how 
very small a proportion of their body would it 
criminate. Would it be just to implicate the uni- 
versal body of the roman- catholics, consisting, at 
that time, of one half, probably of two thirds of 
the whole population of England, in the crime of 
twenty or thirty at the utmost of their members ? 
Would it be allowable to attribute it to their reli- 
gious principles ? to assign any other excuse for it 
than the ordinary feelings and passions of human 
nature? 

You produce against us the bull of Pius V. by 
which he affected to depose queen Elizabeth, and to 
absolve her subjects of their allegiance to her ; and 
the renewal of it by Sixtus Quintus. You cannot 
express yourself of these transactions in stronger 
terms of condemnation, than I have used in " the 
" Historical Memoirs." With the late reverend 
Charles Plowden*, I have acknowledged that a few, 
— but only very few,— catholics, chiefly from among 
those who lived in exile, — ^were led astray by these, 
illaudable bulls from their duty. I have also 
acknowledged, that the conduct of the popes, and 

: ' * Reply to the Editor of the Memoirs of Panzani. 



XV.] AGAINST ELIZABETH. 26^ 

these adherents to them, would have justified queen 
Elizabeth in the use of strong precautions. This is 
all the acknowledgment the case requires or justi- 
fies ; and grieving, as I do, that there is cause for 
it, I make it without hesitation. 

XV. 7. 

The Spanish Armada. 

But, — was it kind or just in you, to be perfectly- 
silent on the conduct of the roman-catholics during 
the threatened invasion by the Spanish Armada ; 
a conduct which does them so much honour ? 

Warmly attached to their faith, which had twice 
rescued their country from paganism ; and under 
which, during a long series of centuries, their an- 
cestors had enjoyed every spiritual and temporal 
blessing ; they now beheld it proscribed ; its tenets 
reviled, its sacred institutions abolished, its holy 
edifices levelled with the ground, its altars pro- 
faned ; all who professed it groaning under the 
severest inflictions of religious persecution ; ima- 
ginary plots incessantly imputed to them ; the 
subtlest artifices used to draw them into criminal 
attempts ; " counterfeit letters privately left in their 
houses ; spies sent up and down the country to 
notice their discourses, and lay hold of their 
words ; informers and reporters of idle stories 
^' against them countenanced and credited and 



* Carte's History, vol. 3, p. 585. 



266 THE ARMADA. [Letter 

even innocence itself/' (to use Camden's own 
words), though accompanied by prudence, no 
guard to them they had constantly before their 
eyes the racks and gibbets by which their priests 
had suffered, and they saw other racks and other 
gibbets preparing ; they saw the presumptive heir 
to the crown brought to the block, because she 
was of their religion ; and because, as she was 
formally told by lord Buckhurst, *^ the established 
religion was thought not to be secure whilst she 
" was in being they knew the universal indig- 
nation which this enormity had raised in every part 
of Europe against their remorseless persecutor ; 
that Pius V. the supreme head of their church, had 
excommunicated her, had deposed her, had ab- 
solved her subjects from their allegiance to her, and 
implicated them in her excommunication if they 
continued true to her ; they knew that Sixtus, the 
reigning pope, had renewed the excommunication, 
had called on every catholic prince to execute the 
sentence, and that Philip II. by far the most power- 
ful monarch of the time, had undertaken it ; had 
lined the shores of the Continent with troops, ready, 
at a moment's notice, for the invasion of England ; 
and had covered the sea with an armament, which 
was proclaimed to be invincible ; — in this awful 
moment, when England stood in need of all her 
strength, and the slightest diversion of any part of 
it might have proved fatal, — the worth of a roman- 
catholic's conscientious loyalty was fully shown. 
What catholic in England did not do his duty ? 



XV.] THE ARMADA. 267 

Who of them forgot his allegiance to the queen ? 
or was not eager to sacrifice his life and his whole 
fortune in her cause ? — " Some," says Hume, 
" equipped ships at their own charge, and gave the 
command of them to protestants ; others were 
" active in animating their tenants, and their vassals 
and neighbours, in defence of their country:" — 
Some," (says the writer of an intercepted letter, 
printed in the second volume of the Harleian Mis- 
cellany^'), " by their letters to the council, signed 
with their own hands, offered that they would 
" make adventures of their own lives in defence of 
the queen, whom they named their undoubted 
" sovereign lady and queen, against all foreign 
foes, though they were sent from the pope, or at 
" his commandment ; yea, some did offer that they 
" would present their bodies in the foremost ranks 
Lord Montagu, a zealous catholic, and the only 
temporal peer who ventured to oppose the act for 
the queen's supremacy in the first year of her 
reign, brought a band of horsemen to Tilbury, 
commanded by himself, his son and his grandson, 
thus periling his whole house in the expected con- 
flict t :— The annals of the world do not present 
a more glorious or a more affecting spectacle than 
the zeal shown on this memorable occasion, by the 
poor and persecuted, but loyal, but honourable 
catholics ! — Nor should it be forgotten, that, in this 
account of their loyalty, all historians are agreed. 

* Page 64. 

t Osborn's Secret History, edit. 1811, p. 22. 



268 SUFFERINGS OF [Letter 

Then will not you, — even you, — feel some indig- 
nation, when you are informed, — that this exem- 
plary, may it not be called, heroic conduct, procured 
no relaxation of the laws against the catholics? — 
That it was followed, almost immediately, by laws 
still more harsh than the preceding ? —That through 
the whole remainder of the reign of Elizabeth, the 
laws against the catholics continued to be executed 
with unabated, and even with increased rigour ? — 
That between the defeat of the armada, and the 
death of Elizabeth, more than one hundred catho- 
lics were hanged and embo welled, — merely, we 
must repeat, — for the exercise of their religion ?- — ■ 
and that, when some catholics presented to the queen 
a most dutiful and loyal address, praying, in the 
most humble terms, a mitigation of the laws against 
them, no other attention was shown it, than that 
Mr. Shelley, by whom it was presented to the 
queen, for presuming," as it was said, " to pre- 
" sent an address to the queen, without the know- 

ledge and consent of the lords of the council," 
was sent to the marshalsea, and kept a close prisoner 
till his death ? 

Surely, when you peruse this treatment of the 
catholics, you will feel some indignation. But do 
you not justly excite something of a like indigna- 
tion, when, after seeing the loyalty of the catholics 
thus so severely tried, and thus found so eminently 
pure, you still continue in your prejudices, and 
still employ your pen in maledictions of us and our 
ancestors? 



XV.] THE ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 269 

One of these sufferers, — father Robert South- 
well, of the society of Jesus, — will, I am sure, 
attract your attention ; for, like yourself, he knew 

Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme/' 

Milton. 

His poems were printed in 1585; a selection 
from this edition has been lately published in 
a small octavo volume. Sir Egerton Bridges ob- 
serves, in his Censura Literaria, that "a deep 
*' moral pathos, illumined by fervent piety, marked 
" every thing Southwell wrote, either in prose or 
" verse;" and that there is something singularly 
" simple, chaste, eloquent and fluent in his diction 
" on all occasions." 

An eloquent and interesting account of his life, 
virtues, sufferings, trial and execution, is given by 
father Juveni^i^'. It appears by it, and by other 
accounts, that father Southwell was racked ten 
times ; and sometimes, during seven hours, without 
intermission. He was executed on the 21st Fe- 
bruary 1595. The hangman tied the noose of the 
rope so unskilfully, that father Southwell, while he 
was hanging, made the sign of the cross several 
times. While he was yet alive, the hangman ad- 
vanced to cut the rope, but the people withheld 
him three several times by their cries ; for the 
meekness and constancy with which the good father 

* Historia Societatis Jesu, lib. xiii. n. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 
See Strype's Ann. vol. 4, n. Ixxix; Holt's Lett. ib. 147; and 
Memoirs of Miss. Priests^ vol. 1, p. 324. 



270 SUFFERINGS OF [Letter 

comported himself, in his last moments, were so 
great, that even the protestants, who were present 
at the execution, w^ere greatly affected by the 
sight. 

A letter, written by him, gives an account of the 
sufferings of the catholic priests in prison, which, 
I am sure, must shock the feelings of every humane 
reader. " A little while ago," says the reverend 
writer, " they apprehended two priests, who have 
" suffered such cruel usages in the prison of Bride- 
" well, as can scarce be believed. What was given 
" them to eat was so little in quantity, and withal 
" so filthy and nauseous, that the very sight of it 
" was enough to turn their stomachs. The labours, 
" to which they obliged them, were continual and 
" immoderate, and no less in sickness than in 
" health ; for, with hard blows and stripes, they 
" urged them to accomplish their tasks, how weak 
" soever they were. Some are there hung up 
" whole days by the hands, in such a manner that 
" they can but just touch the ground with the tips 
" of their toes. In fine, they that are kept in 
" prison truly live in lacu miser ice, et in Into 
^^fceciSy psalm 39. This purgatory we are looking 

for every hour, in which Topcliffe and Young, 
" the two executioners of the catholics, exercise all 
" kinds of torments. But come what please God, 

we hope we shall be able to bear all in him that 

strengthens us." 
This letter is dated the 16th January 1590, 
seventeen months after the memorable display of 



XV.] THE ROMAN-CATHOLieS. 271 

catholic loyalty, while England was threatened by 
the invincible armada. 

In 1 592, a poor waterman, and a Mrs. Ward, 
a widow, then in the service of a catholic lady, 
were hanged, drawn and quartered, for assisting 
a catholic priest to escape from prison. Mrs. Ward 
had been hung up by her hands, and cruelly 
scourged. In 1601, Mrs. Lyne suffered the same 
punishment for harbouring a priest. In 1586, 
Mrs. Clitheroe, of the antient family of Middleton, 
in Yorkshire, was tried by the order of the earl of 
Huntingdon, the lord president of the north, for 
relieving a priest. She refused to plead ; and, by 
the sentence of the court, was pressed to death. 
A note in doctor Lingard's history contains the 
following account of this severe sentence 

" The place of execution was the tolbooth, six 
" or seven yards from the prison at York, on the 
" 25th March 1586. An eye-witness gives the 
" following account of this cruel and unparalleled 
" scene. ' After she had prayed, Fawcet, one of 
" the sheriffs, commanded them to put off her ap- 
" parel ; when she, with the four women, requested 
" him on their knees, that, for the honour of woman- 
" hood, this might be dispensed with ; but they 
" would not grant it. Then she requested that 
" the women might un apparel her, and that they 
" would turn their faces from her during that time. 
" The women took off her cloaths, and put upon 

* Vol, 5, n. (FF.), p. 667 ; Mem. of Miss. Priests, vol. 1, 
189. 



272 EXECUTIONS. . [Letter 

" her the long linen habit. Then, very quietly, 
" she laid her down upon the ground, her face 
/' covered with a handkerchief, and most part of 
" her body with the habit. The door was laid 
"upon her; her hands she joined towards her 
*' face. Then the sheriff said, ' Naie, ye must have 
" your hands bound.' Then two sergeants parted 
" her hands, and bound them to two posts, in the 
*^ same manner as the feet had previously been fixed. 
"After this they laid weight upon her, which, 

when she first felt, she said, ' Jesu ! Jesu ! 
" Jesu ! have mercy upon mee !' which were the 

last words she was heard to speake. She was 
" dying about one quarter of a hower. A sharp 
" stone, as big as a man's fist, had been put under 

her back ; upon her was laid to the quantity of 
" seven or eight hundred weight, which, breaking 

her ribs, caused them to burst forth of the skin."' 
Once more I take leave to ask you,— did not the 
duty of historic impartiality require of you to men- 
tion these sufferings, and this meritorious conduct 
of the roman-catholics ? 



273 



LETTER XVI. 
JAMES I. 

SIR, 

THE part of your chapter on the reign of 
James I. which relates to the roman-catholics, is 
extremely limited : it is confined to the Gunpow- 
der Plot, and the Oath of Allegiance required by 
James from the roman-catholics ; both are important, 
and I shall successively consider them. 

XVI. 1. 

The Gunpowder Plot, 
Justice to the roman-catholics evidently required 
of you, to mention their many loyal advances to 
king James, on his accession to the English throne ; 
the dutiful addresses to him, both from the roman- 
catholic clergy, and the roman- catholic laity ; and 
the humble supplication presented to him from the 
priests in exile. You should also have mentioned 
the communications between him and the catholics, 
both in the life-time of Elizabeth, and subsequently 
to her decease; his fair words, and even promises 
to them, particularly during the negotiations for the 
marriage of Charles, his son and successor, with the 
infanta of Spain ; his explicit avowals, after these 
negotiations ceased, of his resolution to perse- 
cute the roman-catholics ; and the declaration of 

T 



274 JAMES I. [Letter 

Bancroft, the bishop of London, that the time was 
come, when the protestants might act against 
" the catholics without dissimulation or mercy ; that 
" is, — exterminate them and the statute of the 
first year of his reign, which directed, that the laws 
against Jesuits and seminary priests should be put 
into execution; that two-third parts of the real 
estates of every offender, should be seized for recu- 
sancy ; and that persons educated in foreign semi- 
naries should be incapable of taking lands by de- 
scent. Should you not have brought forward all 
these circumstances ? Observing, as you have done, 
a total silence upon them, can you yourself say, 
that you have fairly stated their case ? 

You cite James for saying, that " he was but 
** half a king to the papists, being lord of their 
" bodies, while their souls were the pope's." Why 
should the roman-catholics be incessantly insulted 
by a repetition of those taunting expressions ? what 
foundation is there for them ? When all the pro- 
testant colonies in America revolted against Eng- 
land, catholic Canada alone preserved her allegiance 
to her. What would be the solitude of her camps and 
her armies, if the brave and loyal catholics did not 
fill them? Have not ministers, has not the legisla- 
ture of Great Britain, repeatedly acknowledged the 
loyalty and worth of his majesty's roman-catholic 
subjects ? Did not the earl of Liverpool, in the 
debate on the Irish petition, say, — I have heard 
allusions, this night, to doctrines which, 1 do 
hope, no man now believes the roman-catholics to 



XVI.] JAMES I. 275 

entertain ; nor is there any ground, that the 
question is opposed upon any such pretence. "~ 
This is the language of a statesman, and a gentle- 
man. — How much better, — better in every sense 
of the word, is it, — than general, ungrounded, and 
illiberal abuse 1 

You proceed to the gunpowder plot : — That 
" atrocious treason," you say, " was devised by a 
" few bigots, who had become furious, when their 
" hopes of bringing about a Spanish invasion were 
" frustrated by the peace with Spain. The English 
" catholics, as a body, were innocent of it ; but the 
" opprobrium which it brought upon their church 
** was not unjust; because Guy Fawkes and his 
" associates acted upon the same principles as the 
" head of that church," on the occasions which 
you enumerate, and which we have ah^eady men- 
tioned. 

But, — how many catholics were concerned in the 
plot? Sixteen at the most; and nine only of these 
were privy to the powder part of it. In what esti- 
mation were the conductors of the plot held by the 
catholics? A contemporary writer informs us, 
that *' they were a few wicked and desperate 
" wretches, whom many protestants termed papists, 
" although the priests and true catholics knew them 
" not to be such ; nor could any protestant say, that 
" any one of them was such as the law terms popish 
" recusants." Who revealed the conspiracy } Lol'd 

* Protestants Plea for Priests, p. 56, published in 1621. 
T 2 



276 GUNPOWDER PLOT. [Letter 

Mounteagle, a roman-calholic. — Who were parti- 
cularly active in detecting and exposing it? The 
earl of Northampton and the earl of Suffolk, both 
roman-catholics.— If it had succeeded, and the ex- 
plosion had taken place, would not many, and per- 
haps nearly as many, roman -catholics as protestants 
have perished in the ruin ? As soon as the parti- 
culars of the plot became generally known, did not 
the catholics universally express their horror of it ? 
Blackwell, the catholic archpriest, and the other 
leading clergymen, immediately circulated a pas- 
toral letter, in which they called it " detestable and 
** damnable and assured the catholics, that 
*^ the pope had always condemned such unlawful 
" practices." — They presented an address to the 
kmg, another to both houses of parliament, and a 
third to Cecil, the chief secretary of state, declaring 
in each their abhorrence of the plot, asserting their 
innocence, and urging inquiry ^. Soon after the 
archpriest and the leading clergy had published their 
letter, the former received a brief from the pope to 
the same effect ; on the receipt of it, he, with the 
leading clergy, announced it to the catholics, by a 
letter, in the same spirit as the preceding. 

You say, that, "if the conspirators felt any com- 
" punctious scruples, the sanction of their ghostly 
" fathers quieted their doubts." To this, permit 
me to give an absolute denial. So far was it from 
being the case, that the histories published by More 

• The Advocate of Conscience and Liberty, &c. p. 230. 



XVI.] GUNPOWDER PLOT. 277 

and Bartoii show, that the Jesuits exerted them- 
selves to sooth the general irritation, which James's 
conduct had naturally occasioned. This was known 
so generally, that some ardent spirits insinuated, 
that the Jesuits were leagued with government, to 
withhold the catholics from asserting their rights. 

The rack, as usual, was resorted to. — John Owen, 
a servant, was put to the torture, when he was 
labouring under a rupture : his bowels burst he 
was then removed, taken to bed, and died soon 
afterwards. — Father Gerard, a Jesuit, without the 
slightest evidence of his guilt, was sent to the 
Tower ; his hands were screwed into two iron rings, 
ai^d by those he was fastened to a column, at a 
height that did not allow his feet to touch the 
ground : He was kept in this excruciating torture 
during one hour ; a block was then placed under 
his feet, and he remained in that state during five 
more hours ; he was then removed. On the next 
day the same torture was inflicted upon him, and 
he fainted from excess of pain : He was recalled to 
sense, by pouring vinegar down his throat, but the 
torture was continued : On the following day he 
was ordered to it for the third time, but the gover- 
nor of the Tower interfered, and prevented it. He 
was never brought to trial, and, after some time, 
escaped from prison. After he had reached the 
Continent, he, in the most solemn manner, pro- 
tested his absolute innocence of the charge. — Father 
Oldcorne, another Jesuit, was racked five times, and 
upon one occasion, with particular severity, during 

T 3 



278 buNPOWDER PLOT. [Letter 

several hours : Not even the slightest evidence was 
produced of his having been concerned in the plot, 
or of his having been acquainted with any circum- 
stance connected with it ; he was, however, tried 
for misprision of treason, found guilty, hanged, cut 
down alive, and embowelled.— Guy Fawkes was put 
to the torture : By a document in the state-paper 
office, king James gave particular directions for the 
management of his torture ; he desired that it might 
proceed from less to greater severity, — per gradus 
ad ima, — his majesty's own expression. 

In respect to father Garnet's complicated and 
melancholy tale, a full account of it is necessary 
to make it understood ; I must, therefore, beg leave 
to refer you for it, to " the Historical Memoirs of 
** the English, Irish and Scottish Catholics '* 

But I beg leave to add, that Mr. Peel having 
granted me, in the most liberal manner, permission 
to examine the documents respecting the gunpowder 
conspiracy, in the state-paper office, I have availed 
myself of it at different times. The result of my 
researches has been favourable to the catholic cause : 
I have communicated it to doctor Lingard, and 
I therefore wait, with great impatience, for the 
next volume of his elegant, accurate, and impartial 
work. I must use this opportunity to thank Mr. 
Peel, for the free access which he gave me to the 
state-paper office. A roman-catholic may be per- 
mitted to wish, that his opposition to catholic eman- 



* Ch. xliv. xlv. xlvi. 



XVJ.] OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 

cipation was much less able ; but he cannot wish it 
more honourable, or more liberal. 

Whatever were the circumstances of the plot, the 
penal laws against the catholics were carried into 
execution with great severity. Eighteen priests, 
and seven laymen, suffered death for the mere exer- 
cise of their religion ; one hundred and twenty-six 
priests were banished, and the heavy fine of twenty 
pounds was exacted, with the greatest rigour, from 
every catholic, who did not attend the service of 
the established church. 



XVL 2. 

The Oath of Allegiance required hy James I. from the 
English Roman-catholics, 

You mention the beatification of father Garnet j 
— then inform us, that " the parliament thought 
" it necessary that an oath of allegiance should be 
" taken from every catholic — that the pope for- 
bade them to take it, as being " injurious to his 
" authority, and destructive to their own souls j" 
that " it was however taken without apparent scruple 
" or reluctance: but that catholic writers of the 
*' first eminence abroad maintained the papal pre- 
" tensions in their whole extent and that the 
" protestants were thus confirmed in their opinion, 
" that the dojctrine of equivocation, which was pub- 
" licly taught by the roman-casuists, and the belief 

of the pope's absolute power, rendered it impos- 

T 4 



280 FATHER GARNET. [Letter 

sible to confide in the oaths of men, whose con- 
" science was not in their own keeping." Permit 
me to say, that this representation contains many 
mistakes. 

Father Garnet has not been beatified. Of this, 
catholic-writers have more than once explicitly as- 
sured the public in works of celebrity, and in con- 
siderable circulation. Perhaps you are not aware 
of what constitutes a beatification : When the ca- 
nonization of any holy person is solicited, a com- 
mission is issued by the Congregation of Rites, for 
the purpose of ascertaining the general opinion of 
his sanctity and miracles. If the report of the 
commissioners be favourable to them, the process for 
the canonization is instituted : it proceeds through 
various stages, until it is ascertained, by the most 
solemn and strict proofs, that the party possessed the 
virtues of faith, hope and charity, in an eminent, 
or, — to use the language of the proceeding, — in an 
heroic degree ; and that miracles were worked by 
him, or through his intercession. This proof being 
obtained, a consistory of cardinals is convened ; a 
very solemn delibemtion ensues ; and if the con- 
sistory is of opinion that the proof required is satis- 
factory, the cause proceeds ; and then, but not 
until then, the pope pronounces the party to be 
*' among the blessed." This is termed " beatifi- 

cation." Here the process frequently stops. — A 
further process, in which proof of other miracles 
is required, leads it to canonization. When he is 
beatified, he is termed " blessed ;" vvhen he is 



XVI.] OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. '281 

canonized, he is termed sanctified," or saint." 
Now, no process for the canonization of father 
Garnet has ever been begun ; he has not therefore 
been beatified : it is even irregular to call him 
blessed." If any roman-catholic writer has ap- 
plied that epithet to him, (which I think doubtful), 
he unquestionably intended to use the word in its 
ordinary, not in its appropriate sense. 

As to the oath of allegiance : — Some Transalpine 
divines carried their opinions in favour of the papal 
power so high, as to maintain that the pope pos- 
sessed, by divine right, and directly, supreme power, 
both in temporal and spiritual concerns: others 
lowered this pretension considerably, by maintaining 
that the pope, by divine right, possessed directly no 
temporal power ; but that, when the great good of 
any state, or any individual required it, he might 
exercise temporal power, or cause it to be exercised 
over that state or individual. This gave him, iiidi- 
rectly, temporal power in spiritual concerns. The 
latter was a general opinion of roman-catholics when 
James proposed his oath of allegiance ; it is now 
abandoned in every part of the world, except the 
precinct within the walls of the Vatican : the 
English, Irish and Scottish roman-catholics have 
solemnly disclaimed it by their oaths. 

The persons who took the oath prescribed by 
James L disclaimed the pope's deposing power ab- 
solutely, and without any qualification ; and abjured, 
" as impious and heretical, the damnable doctrine, 
" that princes excommunicated, or deprived by the 
pope, might be deposed or murdered by their 



JAMES I. [Letter 
" subjects, or any other whatsoever." The pope, 
by two briefs, forbade the catholics to take the oadi ; 
and there is no doubt, although he did not venture 
to avow it, that it was on account of its disclaimer 
of his deposing power. — I wish that I could say 
with you, that *' it was taken by the catholics with- 
** out apparent scruple or reluctance — It occa- 
sioned much contention and heart-burning among 
them, and a fierce and long war of words ensued j 
ultimately, the oath was taken by the generality of 
the body, but it always had opponents. Nothing, 
however, in the dispute, warrants your charge of 
equivocation. Never did equivocation enter less 
into any conflict : nothing can be more explicit 
than Bellarmine's attack, or Widdrington's defence, 
of the oath. The Clarendon state papers* contain 
a multitude of documents, which show the fairness 
of the proceedings on each side* I believe that 
the views of James himself, in proposing the oath, 
were kind ; the views of his minister appear to me 
to be, at best, very doubtful. 

But upon what ground do you adopt the invi- 
dious charge, " that the belief of the pope's absolute 
" power renders it impossible to confide in the 
catholics, as their consciences were not in their 
own keeping.^* Permit me to say, that I spurn 
this charge; and to assure you, that, if all the 
roman-catholics in the universe were polled, all the 
roman -catholics in the universe would spurn it. A 
statement of the doctrine of the roman-catholics 

* Vol. 1, p. 190. And see the Historioal Memoirs, 
c. xlvii. xlviii. Ivi. 



XVI.] OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 283 

upon this head being too long for insertion in this 
place, I refer you for it to doctor Milner's forty- 
sixth letter in his " End of Controversy." 

It is particularly strange that you should bring 
it forward in this place, as in two lines nearly pre- 
ceding it, you have told us that the pope forbade 
the catholics to take the oath proposed hy James /, 
yet that they took it without apparent scruple or 
reluctance. You assert, that the doctrine of equivo- 
cation was publicly taught by the catholic church : 
it has, on the contrary, been publicly condemned 
by her. Thus, when towards the end of the seven- 
teenth century, certain loose opinions on the practice 
of it were found in the writings of some foreign 
divines, they were condemned, in the strongest 
terms, by a national assembly of the Galilean clergy 
in 1700*. 

In a former page, I have cited lord LiverpooPs 
liberal expression, that " he heard allusions that 

night to doctrines which he did hope no one 
" then believed the catholics to entertain:" is not 
the passage, which I have just transcribed from your 
work, a melancholy proof that there was not all the 
ground his lordship supposed for the hope, which 
his own honourable mind suggested to him? 

* Bausset's Hist, de Bossuet, vol. 4, liv. xi. s. 9 ; Histoire 
Generale de I'Eglise, pendant le xviii Siecle, Besan^on, 
1 823, torn, premier, p. 362; D'Avrigni's Mem. Chronol. et 
Dogm. ad annum, 1700 ; and Picot's Memoires pour servir 
a I'Histoire de I'Eglise durant le xviii. Siecle, ad an. 1700. 

And see Mr. Alban Butler's Life of sir Toby Matthews, 
p. 17. 



284 



[Letter 



LETTER XVIL 
CHARLES L 

SIR, 

YOU are almost entirely silent on the condition 
of the roman-catholics during the reign of Charles L 
— L You should have mentioned the artifices then 
used to inflame the public mind against them ; 
their sufferings and loyalty:— IL And the solemn 
judgment of archbishops and bishops of Ireland, 
against the toleration of the roman- catholic re- 
ligion. 

XVIL 1. 

Artifices then used to inflame the Public Mind against the 
Roman-catholics; their Loyalty and Sufferings. 

They were very great. — Stories, the most ab- 
surd and ridiculous, were propagated to inflame the 
popular spirit against them. — Reports were spread 
of foreign fleets threatening the coasts ; of an 
army of papists training to the use of military 
weapons under ground ; of a plot for blowing up the 
Thames, and drowning the faithful protestant city^'. 
What should be said of the celebrated Hampden, 
who introduced into the house of commons a tailor 

* Examination of Neale's History of the Puritans by Grey, 
vol. 2, p. 260. 



XVII.] CHARLES I. 285 

of Cripplegate, who avowed that, walking in the 
fields, near a bank, he overheard, from the opposite 
side of it, the particulars of a plot, concerted by the 
priests and other papists, for a hundred and eight 
assassins to murder one hundred and eight leading 
members of parliament, at the rate of ten pounds 
for every lord, and of forty shillings for every com- 
moner, so murdered? Or of the house of commons, 
who, upon this deposition, proceeded to the most 
violent measures against the catholics ; arid, under 
pretence of greater security, ordered the trainbands 
and militia of the kingdom to be in readiness, and 
placed under the command of the earl of Essex ? 
Or of the house of lords, who adopted the tailor's 
report, and ordered it to be printed and circulated 
throughout the kingdom ? 

The monarch was, from nature and principle, 
averse to measures of cruelty and oppression ; but 
was easily persuaded, when he thought his interest 
required it, to sacrifice the catholics to the fury of 
their enemies. 

The consequences were such as might have been 
expected : proclamation after proclamation issued 
out against these unhappy victims of popular delu- 
sion; incarcerations, tortures and banishments, 
repeatedly followed ; twenty-three priests were 
hanged and embowelled, and many others were 
condemned, and perished in prison. ' i/^ 

As a specimen of the manner in which the 
executions of the priests were conducted, I shall 



286 EXECUTION [Letter 

transcribe the account given of the execution of the 
reverend Mr. Hugh Green, by an eye-witness. 

Upon a proclamation of Charles 1. commanding 
all priests to depart the realm by a certain day, he 
went for that purpose to Lime, in Dorsetshire, and 
was going on board a vessel bound for France. 
But he was accosted by a custom-house officer, who 
asked him his name and business : Mr. Green freely 
told it him. The officer observed to him, that the 
day was passed ; that he was not entitled to the bene- 
fit of the proclamation ; and immediately caused 
him to be apprehended, and carried before a justice 
of peace. He there pleaded his good intentions of 
obeying the king's orders, and hoped that, as the 
mistake was only of a few days, advantage would 
not be taken of his candid, though unwary, discovery 
of his character. He was, however, sent to Dor- 
chester gaol ; and, after five months, was tried and 
condemned, as in cases of high treason, barely for 
being a priest. 

The following account of his martyrdom is copied 
from Mrs. Willoughby's manuscript * : 

" Upon Wednesday, upon the sentence of death 
" being given against him by judge Foster, he said, 
" Sit nomen Domini Jesu benedictum in secula, (may 
" the name of the Lord Jesus be for ever blessed). 
" He should have died upon Thursday ; and, to that 
" end, the furze was carried to the hill to make the 

* Doctor Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, vol. 2, 
p. 217. 



XVir.l OF PRIESTS. 287 

" fire ; and a great multitude of people were in the 
" streets, and at the gates and lanes, to see the 
execution. But our great martyr did desire to 
" die on Friday, the which was, by a friend of his, 
" procured of the sheriff, though with very much 
** difficulty, being opposed by Millard, the master 
" keeper. And it was noted, that, after his sen- 
" tence, he never went to bed, and eat but very little, 
" scarce enough to sustain nature ; yet he w^as very 
" cheerful, and full of courage to the last. 

" Now, I beseech our Lord to put his words 
into my memory, that I may expressly relate 
them, for I have a great scruple to add or take 
" away 5 and, therefore, I have had the help of 
a true servant of God, who was attentive at his 
death ; yet we, being two weak women, cannot 
" punctually remember all. Much admired was 
his devotion : he, kneeling on the hurdle, made 
his prayer, and kissed it before he lay down upon 
" it, and continued his prayers until he came to the 
" place of execution ; then he was taken from the 
hurdle, and stayed on the hill, a good distance 
" from the gallows, until three poor women were 
hanged. Two of them had sent him word be- 
" fore, that they would die in their faith. O ! what 
comfort was this to God's true servant, who did 
all which was possible to see and to speak with 
them, but could not. Then they sent again to 
" desire him, that when they had made a confession 
of their sinful life at the gallows, and should 
" give him a sign, that he then should absolve 



288 EXECUTION [Letter 

" them ; the which, with great joy on his part, 
" and much benefit on theirs, was performed. 
" They two, turning their faces towards us, and 
" throwing forth their arms, cried out to him, 
" « God be with you sir,' and so died ; but the 

third woman turned from us to the press of the 
" people, and so she died, her face or speech never 
" tending towards us. 

" Now I also noted, that our martyr's charity, 
" in this short time of life, was not unrewarded ; 
*' for God, of his mercy, was pleased to yield him 
" the like comfort, by a reverend father of the 

society of Jesus, who was there on horseback to 
** absolve him; the which, with great devotion and 

reverence, taking off his cap, and lifting up his 

eyes and hands to heaven, he received from 
" him. 

"I cannot but bless God to see the magna- 
" nimity of these two, our holy martyr, and that 
" reverend father ;— the one, being at the point of 
" death, with such comfort, as his cheerful coun- 
" tenance expressed, and the other not apprehend- 

ing the great danger he was in, to be taken by 
" the rude multitude, of whom he should have 
" found no mercy. 

" Now is our martyr brought to the foot of the 

ladder by the sheriff, where, falling upon his 
" knees, he remained in devout prayer almost half 
" an hour; then he took his crucifix, and agnus 

Dei from his neck, and gave them to this devout 

gentlewoman, my assistant in this relation ; and 



XVII.] OF PRIESTS. 289 

" his beads he gave to another ; also he gave the 
" master -keeper his handkerchief ; and, at last of 
" all, to me, most unworthy, he gave his book of 
" litanies, &c. ; also, from the gallows, he threw me 

down his band, spectacles, and priest's girdle. 

Then, turning himself to the people, and bless- 

ing himself with the sign of the cross, he began : 
There be four principal things which all men 
" ought to remember,— death, judgment, heaven 

and hell. Death is a horror to nature ; but that, 
" which followeth is much more terrible, viz. judg- 
" ment, if we die not as we ought : and as we dis- 

pose ourselves to good or evil in this life, so shall 
" the measures of our punishment or glory succeed. 
" I am here condemned to die for my religion, and 
" for being a priest : We know there must be 
" priests ; for God, foretelling of the church by 

the prophets, saith, * Thou art a priest for 
" ever, according to tlie order of Melchizedek,'' 
" (Psal. ex.) ' And from the rising of the sun, 
" unto the going doum thereof there shall he a 
" clean sacrifice offered in my name,^ (Malachi i.) 

Now, four things are to be considered, — a God, 
" a sacrifice, a priest, a man. God must be served 
" by sacrifice ; this sacrifice must be offered by a 

priest ; and this priest must be a man. Such 

am I, and therefore I must die. Wherefore do 
"we receive holy unction, and are made priests, 
" but to offer sacrifices to God ? But I am con- 
" demned for being ordered by the see of Rome, 
^' St. Paul saith, * the Romans have the catholic 

u 



290 EXECUTIONS [Letter 

faith,* (Rom. i. &e.) and gives God thanks that 

their faith and his were one ; of which catholic 
" faith I am. Against this Roman faith all the 
" sectaries cried out ; and all heretics, that have 
" been since Christ, oppugn this faith, and yet 

truly out of it none can be saved. 
" There be four things more,— one God, one 
" faith, one baptism, one church. That there is 
" one God we all acknowledge ; in whom, from 

whom, and by whom, all things remain and have 
" their being. That there is one faith appears by 

Christ praying that saint Peter's faith, (he said not 

faiths), should never fail ; and he promised to be 
" with it to the end of the world. That there is 
" one baptism ; we are all cleansed by the laver of 
" water in the word. That there is one church, 
" holy and sanctified : Does not saint Paul say, that 
" it is a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, 
" or any such thing ? Now the marks of this church 
" are sanctity, unity, antiquity, universality, which 
" all of us, in <2// points of faith, believe. (Here all 
" the ministers interrupted him, and would have 

disputed with him ; but he said he had been five 
" months in prison, and in all that time not any of 
" them had come to dispute with him : there, he 
" would not have refused any of them; but now^ 
" that his time was too short for disputation. So 
" he went on). But some will say. We are fallen 
" off from the church of Rome ; but in what pope^s 
" time, in what prince's reign, or what are the 
" errors, none can discover. No! this holy church 



XVII.] OF PRIESTS. 291 

" of Christ did never err. We have often offered 
" public disputation, but it would never be accepted* 
" No ! this church can never be impeached of false- 
" hood in matters of doctrine ; though scholars in 
" school-points may differ, but never in points of 
" faith. God is the author of all truth, and He 
** hath promised to be with it even to the consum- 
" mation of the world, (St. Matth. xxviii), until 
" we meet all in the unity of faith, and knowledge 
" of the Son of God, to the end we be not carried 
" away with every blast of doctrine ; because many 
" heresies have risen, with diversities of doctrine, 
to oppugn the truth of God's church, as hereto- 
fore, Arius, Nestorius, WicklilFe, and others : 
so now, in these our latter times, Luther, CaU 
vin, Zuingle and the rest, whose doctrines, at 
" this time, have so inveigled the judgments of this 
" kingdom ; for God cannot be divided, nor served 
in many faiths. And although there have been 
" heretics, yet this roman church resisted, con- 
" founded, and condemned all heresies. And 
" Luther himself confesses, that his religion was 
not begun by God, neither should it be ended 
" by God. 

" Here a minister, (one Banker, — some say it 
" was the minister who formerly had been a weaver, 
" and now is chaplain to sir Thomas Trencher), cried 
" out, with a loud voice, He hlasphemeth ! stop that 
" mouth of the blasphemer ; cast him off the lad- 
" der : and so much noise was made by the multi- 



292 EXECUTIONS [Letter 

tude; and the sheriff, to quiet the people, desired 
*' our martyr to leave off that discourse^ and silence 
" being made, — I truly pity our poor country, said 
" he, with all my heart, to see what divisions are in 
" it, and in religion no unity among you. Then he 
" began to pray heartily for his majesty, and that 
' this kingdom might be settled in peace ; the 
" which, he said, would never be, until there was 

unity of religion amongst them, 
" Then he said,— I am brought hither for a 
" priest and a traitor. That I am a priest I have 

confessed, and, as such, ought to have left my 
" country, in obedience to his majesty's proclama- 
" tion : I went to receive that benefit for my 
^* passage, but was refused and taken, upon pretence 

of some few days past beyond the limitation of 
" the aforesaid proclamation, and brought to Dor- 
" Chester prison, and am now, for no other cause, 

(I thank God), than for being a priest, to die, and 

not for any treason to my king or country ; for 
" I protest, before Almighty God, I never wished 

hurt to my king or country in my life ; but 
*' I prayed for his majesty, and every day in my 
" memento, at the holy mass, I offered and recom- 
" mended him to God. But there were laws made 
" in queen Elizabeth's days, by which it was made 

treason to be a priest : by this law I am con- 
** demned for a traitor. But surely, the antient 
" laws of this kingdom would never have done 
" it as the modern doth. And now, judge you 



XVIL] OF PRIESTS. 293 

" whether the laws, so lately made by men, be 

sufficient to overthrow the authority of God's 
" church, and to condemn the professors of it. 

*^ Nevertheless, I forgive all the world from my 
" heart, and all those who have had a hand in my 
" death ; and I beseech you all, if I have offended 
" any of you in any thing, that you will every one 
" forgive me. I have not had a purpose to give 
" offence to any of you ; and I pray God give you 

all his grace to seek him so, as you may be made 
" able to attain his mercy and eternal glory. 

" Then he called to me, and desired me to 
" commend him heartily to all his fellow-prisoners 

and to all his friends, I told him I would ; and 

that some of them were gone before him, and 
" with joy expected him. Then, on my knees, 

I humbly begged his benediction; so did five 
** more of us ; and he cheerfully gave us his 

blessing, making the sign of the holy cross 
" over our heads. Then one Gilbert Loder, an 
" attorney, asked him, if he did not deserve death, 
" and believe his death to be just ? To which he 

replied. My death is unjust. — So pulling his cap 
" over his face, his hands joined before his breast, 
" in silent prayer, he expected, almost half an hour, 
*^ his happy passage, by the turning of the ladder, 
" for not any one would put a hand to turn it, al- 
" though the sheriff had spoken to many. I heard 
" one bid him do it himself At length, he got a 
" country clown, who presently, with the help of 
" the hangman, (who sat astride on the gallows), 

u 3 



294 EXECUTIONS [Letter 

" turned the ladder, which being done, he was 
" noted, by myself and others, to cross himself 
" three times with his right hand 5 as he hanged ; 
*' but instantly the hangman was commanded to 
" cut him down with a knife, which the con- 
" stable held up to him, stuck in a long stick, 
although I and others did our uttermost to have 
" hindered him. Now the fall which he had from 
" the gallows, not his hanging, did a little astonish 
" him ; for that they had willed the hangman to 
" put the knot of the rope at his poll, and not 
** under his ear, as is usual. The man that was to 
" quarter him was a timorous, unskilful man, by 
" trade a barber, and his name was Barefoot, 
" whose mother, sisters and brothers are devout 
" catholics. He was so long dismembering him, 
" that he came to his perfect senses, and sat up- 
right, and took Barefoot by the hand to show, 
" (as I believe), that he forgave him ; but the peo- 
" pie pulled him down with the rope which was 
" about his neck. Then did this butcher cut his 
belly on both sides, and turned the flap upon his 
breast, which the holy man feeling, put his left 
hand upon his bowels, and looking on his bloody 
hand, laid it down by his side; and lifting up his 
right hand, he crossed himself, saying, three 
" times, JesUy Jesu, Jesu^ mercy ! — the which, 
although I am unworthy, I am a witness, for my 
hand was on his forehead, and many protestants 
" heard him, and took great notice of it ; for all 
the catholics were pressed away by the unruly 



XVII.] OF PRIESTS. 205 

multitude, except myself, who never left him until 
" his head was severed from his body. Whilst he 
" was thus calling upon Jesus, the butcher did pull 

a piece of his liver out, instead of his heart, and 

tumbling his guts out every way, to see if his 
** heart were not amongst them ; then, with his 

knife, he raked in the body of this most blessed 
" martyr, who even then called upon Jesus, and 
" his forehead sweat ; then was it cold, and pre- 
" sently again it burned; his eyes, nose and mouth, 

ran over with blood and water. His patience 
" was admirable ; and when his tongue could no 
" longer pronounce that life-giving name, Jesus, 
" his lips moved, and his inward groans gave signs of 
*' those lamentable torments, which, for more than 
" half an hour, he suffered, Methought my heart 
" was pulled out of my body to see him in such 
" cruel pains, lifting up his eyes to heaven, and not 
" yet dead. Then I could no longer hold, but 
" cried out upon them, that did so torment him ; 
" upon which, a devout gentlewoman, understand- 

ing he did yet live, went to Cancola, the sheriff, 
" who was her uncle's steward, and, on her knees, 
" besought him to see justice done, and put him 
" out of his pains; who, at her request, commanded 
" to cut off his head : Then, with a knife they did 
" cut his throat, and with a cleaver chopped off his 

head; and so this thrice most blessed martyr 
" died. Then was his heart found, and put upon 

a spear, and showed to the people, and so thrown 
" down into the fire, which was on the side of a hill. 

u 4 



296 EXECUTIONS [Letter 

" They say, this heart did roll from the fire, and 
that a woman did take it up, and carry it away : 
" this I speak not of my knowledge, but what is 
** here reported to be true, and it may be very pro- 
bable, because the hill is steep and uneven, and 
the heart not thrown as usually but from the point 
" of a long spear. Then did this gentlewoman 
" and myself go to the sheriff, and beg his body, 
" the which he freely gave us. Now did the devil 
roar, and his instruments, the blinded Dorces- 
trians, (whom with my soul I deplored), did fret 
and chafe, and told the sheriff that he could not 
dispose of his quarters to papists, neither should 
we have them. And truly, I believe, that if we 
" should have offered to carry them away, they 
would have thrown both the body and us into the 
*' fire ; for our number was but small, and they 
" many thousands. Their fury did so rage against 
us, that we were forced to withdraw ourselves ; 
'* and had I not procured the master-keeper's wife 
" to have gone back with us to the town, they had 
stoned us, or done us worse harm, as I was told 
by many credible people ; so great is their 
^' malice to catholics. God, in his mercy, pardon 
" and convert them ! From the town we sent 
" a shroud, by a protestant woman, to wrap his 
'* happy quarters in, whom, it seems, God did send, 
as on purpose, to do this last office unto his ser- 
vant; for to us all she was a stranger, and lives 
" twelve miles from the town. And when she 
heard us mourn that none of us durst appear, she 



XVII.] OF PRIESTS. 297 

" with a courage went and saw his quarters put 
into the shroud, and buried them near to the 
" gallows, although she suffered many affronts from 
" the ungodly multitudes, who, from ten o'clock 
" in the morning till four in the afternoon, staid 
" on the hill and sported themselves at football with 
his head, and put sticks in his eyes, ears, nose 
and mouth, and then they buried it near to the 
body ; for they durst not set it upon their gates, 
*' because the last before, which was long since 
*' martyred amongst them, (Mr. John Cornelius 
^* Mohun, A. D. 1 594), they set up his head upon 
" their town gate, and presently there ensued a 
plague, which cost many of them their lives : so 
" that still they fear, yet will not amend. God 
" hold his merciful hand over them ! or else, I fear, 
" a severe judgment will befal them for this their 
last inhuman cruelty. I wish the contrary ; and 
heartily pray, that we may all partake of the 
" prayers and sufferings of this our holy martyr, 
" whose magnanimity and patience were to me both 
admirable and profitable. And well did one 
minister say, who was present at his death, 
amongst forty more of his coat, that if many such 
men should die, and be suffered to speak as he 
did, they should soon shut up their books. This 
" is credible, though, for some respects, the man 
is not named. — Sir, This briefly is what I con- 
'* ceived myself obliged to signify unto you con- 
cerning this subject, not doubting but you will 



m LOYALTY OF THE [Letter 

conceive the same comfort in reading it, as I did 
in writing the same unto you, who am, Sir, &c. 

E. Willoughbyr 

The same account was not long after published, 
in print, by Chifletius, in his ' Palmae Cleri 
Anglicani;' and the substance of it is found in 
" the ' Douay Diary,'' 1642. 

Mr. Green suffered at Dorchester, on Friday 
*' the 19th of August 1642, in the 57th year of 
his age." 

From the commencement of the reign of Eliza- 
beth, till the time of which we are now writing, at- 
tempts were unceasingly made to fix on the English 
catholics the odious charge of disloyalty. Charles L 
knew it to be wholly groundless ; but too often 
acted as if he believed it : — undeviatingly, however, 
the catholics persevered in duty and loyalty. 

Soon after the commencement of the contest be- 
tween the monarch and his parliament, the latter 
obtained the command of the public money. From 
this time, the wants of the king were entirely sup- 
plied from the private purses of his loyal subjects. 
The catholics contributed largely to them by volun- 
tary subscriptions, and, on several occasions, by 
advancing to him two or more years of their annual 
assessments or compositions for recusancy: and, 

no sooner was the standard of loyalty erected," 
says doctor Milner*, "and permission given for 

* Letters to a Prebendary, letter vn. 



XVII.] EOMAN-CATHOLICS. 290 

" catholics to serve under it, than the whole no- 
" bility of that communion, the Winchesters, the 
Worcesters, the Dunbars, the Bellamonts, the 
" Carnarvons, the Po wises, the Arundells, the Fau- 
" Gonbergs, the Molineuxes, the Cottingtons, the 
" Mounteagles, the Langdales, &c. &c. with an 
equal proportion of catholic gentry and yeomanry, 
were seen flocking round it, impatient to wash 
away, with their blood, the stain of disloyalty, 
which they had been unjustly constrained to suffer 
during the greater part of a century,— that is, ever 
since the accession of Elizabeth. Those catholics 
" who v^^ere possessed of castles and strong holds, 
*' turned them into royal fortresses ; and the rest of 
" them raised what money their estates could afford 
in support of the king and constitution. We 
" may judge of their exertions in this cause, by 
" their sufferings in it." — Mr. Dodd^ refers to 
a list before him, — (and confirmed by authentic 
documents), — of six lieutenant-generals, eighteen 
colonels, sixteen lieutenant-colonels, sixteen majors, 
sixty-nine captains, fourteen lieutenants, five cornets, 
fifty gentlemen volunteers, all catholics, who lost 
their lives, fighting in the field for the royal cause. 
The whole amount of noblemen and gentlemen, 
who thus perished on the side of the king, was 
estimated at five hundred 5 nearly two-fifths of 
them were catholics ;~and this considerably ex- 
ceeded the proportion, which the number of the 



* Hist. vol. 3, part vi. art. 5, 



300 l6YALTY of the [Letter 

catholics were at this time to that of the protest- 
ants, of the same rank in society. 

Several contemporary writers, among the pro- 
testants, did justice to the conduct of the catholics: 
"It is a truth beyond all question," says doctor 
Stanhope, that there were a great many noble, 
brave and loyal spirits of the roman-catholic per- 
** suasion, who did, with the greatest integrity, and 
" without any other design than satisfying con- 
" science, adventure their lives in the war for the 
king's service ;" and that " several, if not all 
of these men, were of such souls, that the greatest 
" temptation in the world would not have prevented 
** or made them desert their king in his greatest 
miseries^." — " The English papist," says another 
writer t, for his courage and loyalty in the first 
war, deserves to be recorded in history ; and per- 
haps this may be worthy of notice, — that, when- 
ever the usurper, or any of his instruments of 
" blood or sycophancy, resolved to take away the 
life or estate of a papist, it was his loyalty, not 
his religion, that exposed him to their rapine and 
butchery." 

Other protestants have not done so much justice 
to the catholics : perhaps you will be of opinion, 
that lord Clarendon should have said more of their 

* I'he surest Establishment of the Throne, p. 30, cited by 
Dodd, vol. 3, p. 31. 

t State of Christianity in England, by a protestant clergy- 
man, said to be a bishop, p. 25; also cited by Dodd, in the 
place referred to. 



XVII.] ROMAN-CATHOLICS. 301 

fidelity to Charles II. after the defeat of the royal 
army at Worcester, — than that " it must never be 
" denied, that some of their religion had a great 
** share in his majesty's preservation," — when you 
are informed, that, during the six first days after 
that disaster, his majesty was wholly in the hands 
and under the protection of the catholics. Fifty- 
two of that religion were apprised of the secret : 
some of these were in low circumstances; but 
neither fear nor hope induced even one of them 
to swerve from his fidelity. On the sixth day his 
majesty reached the house of Mr. Lane ; from this 
time, he was in the hands of protestants, who served 
him with equal fidelity. In their praise, the noble 
historian is minute and eloquent ; but of the fifty- 
two loyal catholics, he mentions only father Hud- 
dlestone, a benedictine monk*. It should be added, 
that, at the time of the death of Charles I. the Irish 
catholics were the only compact body, throughout 
the extent of the British empire, which had pre- 
served, untainted and unshaken, their loyalty to 
the royal cause f. 

Much of the landed property of the roman- 

* See Dodd's Hist, vol.3, part vii, book i, art. 1. From 
a manuscript signed by father Huddlestone and by Mr. Whit- 
grave of Moseley, at whose house the monarch was concealed 
two days and two nights, Mr. Dodd gives the particulars of 
the monarch's wanderings which followed the battle, and the 
names of the fifty-two cathohcs entrusted with the secret. 

t See Mr. Plowden's Historical Review of the State of 
Ireland, an able and instructive work, vol. 1, c. 4. 



302 TOLERATION CONDEMNED [Letter 

catholics was confiscated : it would not be esti- 
mating the amount of it too high to assert, that 
the adherence of the roman- catholics of England 
to Charles L and his son, cost them one-third, at 
least, of their real, and one-half, at least, of their 
personal estates. 

Thirteen priests suffered for their religion during 
the reign of Charles L ; eleven under the Usurpa- 
tion ; and, during the last period, further severities 
were inflicted on the roman-cathoKcs. 

XVIL 2. 

Solemn Judgment of Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, 
against the Toleration of the Roman-catholic Religion. 

A FAIRER, a more learned, or a more honourable 
name than that of archbishop Usher, the church of 
England cannot produce : — yet, did this venerable 
man, with a file of musketeers, enter the catholic 
chapel in Cork-street, Dublin, during the cele- 
bration of divine service, seize the priest in his vest- 
ments, and hew down the crucifix : — yet, did this 
venerable man, with eleven other Irish prelates, 
sign what is termed, The judgment of diverse of 
^ the archbishops and bishops of Ireland on the 
" toleration of religion ;"~and declare by it, " that 
** the religion of the papists was superstitious and 
idolatrous ; their faith and doctrine erroneous 
and heretical ; their church, in respect to both, 
" apostatical ; that to give them, therefore, a tole- 



XVII.] BY IRISH PRELATES. 303 

" ration, or to consent that they may freely exer- 
cise their religion, is a grievous sin.'* — It is ob- 
servable too *, that this took place at a time when 
Charles I. was in his greatest distress ; and the 
catholics of Ireland were straining every nerv^e to 
serve him. 

I beg of you to observe, that, in this solemn 
doctrinal judgment of the Irish prelacy, nothing is 
said, nothing is insinuated respecting the conduct, 
the civil principles, or even the civil tendency of the 
religious principles of the roman-catholics, or their 
religion. Toleration is denied to them wholly, and 
merely, for their religion ; for the heresy and errors 
of their faith and doctrine, and for the apostacy of 
their church: — Upon these accounts, and upon 
these accounts only, a grant of toleration to their 

religion" is declared " to be a sin." ... 
Here then I take my stand : — I call upon you 
to consider all you have heard or read of the history 
of the roman-catholic church, in any age, or in any 
country; — I desire you to place before you all that 
the most intolerant roman-catholics have said or 
written ; — I then defy you to produce one single 
instance, in which the detestable dogma of religious 
intolerance has been more explicitly, solemnly, or 
unqualifiedly propounded. . . . 

Should it then be attributed to protestants as a 
tenet of their creed? . . . This, — I do not say: — 
But I do say,— that, if it should not be attributed 

* See Plowden's Historical Revietv of ike State of Ireland, 
vol. 1, c- 4; an able and instructive work. 



304 CONDUCT OF [Letter XVII. 

to the protestant church, no intolerant deed or 
doctrine of roman-catholic individuals, however 
eminent in rank or character, should be attributed 
to the roman-catholic church. 

Surely the archbishop must have forgotten the 
just rebuke, which, not long before this time, he 
himself had given to a clergyman for a want of 
charity. Being wrecked on a desolate part of 
the Irish coast, he applied to a clergyman for 
relief ; and stated, without mentioning his name or 
rank, his own sacred profession. The clergyman 
rudely questioned it, and told him peevishly, that 
^' he doubted whether he knew the number of the 

commandments." " Indeed I do," replied the 
archbishop mildly, " there are eleven." " Eleven !" 
said the clergyman, " tell me the eleventh, and 
" I will assist you." " Obey the eleventh," said 
the archbishop, and you certainly will. — A new 

commandment I give unto you, — that ye love 
" one another." 



CHARLES IT. 



LETTER XVIIL 
CHARLES II. 

SIR, 

FOR some passages in the chapter of your work 
at which I am now arrived, you have my sincere 
thanks ; to others, I object. The principal of these 
I shall now proceed to mention : — I. 1 shall first 
notice your defence of Charles IL's violation of his 
promise at Breda to the roman-catholics and the 
protestant dissenters. In a note I shall show a near 
resemblance between this conduct of Charles, and 
the conduct of the British government towards the 
Irish roman-catholics at the time of the Union : — 
IL I shall then shortly advert to some of your cri» 
minations of the roman-catholics in your present 
chapter : — IIL Then, briefly notice the Corporation 
and Test Acts IV. Then, suggest to you some con- 
siderations on the act of the thirtieth of Charles IL 
which disables roman^catholic peers and commoners 
from sitting and voting in parliament : — V. Then, 
mention Oates's plot : — VI. Then, notice James I L 
the Bill of Rights, and the Acts of Settlement : — 
VII. Then, conclude my letter, with some observa- 
vations upon your repeated charges against us of 
^superstition and Idolatry. 



308 



DEGLAllATION [Letter 



XVIII. 1. 

Doctor Southey's Defence of Charles IV s Violation of his 
Promise, at Breda, to the Roman-catholics and Pro- 
testant Dissenters. 

Permit me to mention, that I have read with 
surprise this defence. " A fair promise,"— I copy 
your own words, — " was held forth, in the declara- 
" tion, that the most conciliatory measures should 
" be pursued." It was then said, — " because the 
" passions and un charitableness of the times have 
" produced several opinions in religion, by which 
" men were engaged in parties and animosities 
" against each other, which, when they shall here- 
" after meet in a freedom of conversation, will be 
" composed or better understood, we do declare 
" a liberty to tender consciences j and that no man 
" shall be disquieted or called in question for dif- 

ference of opinion in matters of religion, which 
" do not disturb the peace of the kingdom ; and 
" that we shall be ready to consent to such an act 
" of parliament, as, upon mature deliberation, shall 

be offered to or for the full granting that indul- 
" gence." 

You say, that ** Charles was sincere in this pro^ 
" mise : that it arose from a just and honourable 

sentiment of shame, that laws so severe against 
" the roman-catholics should continue to exist, 

after the political necessity for them had ceased," 



XVIII.] ' AT BREDA. 307 

— ^' But Charles, — you afterwards say, — did 
" not think himself bound by his declaration from 
" Breda, to say any thing more upon the subject of 

religion, than to pass such an act as the parlia- 
" ment might think proper to offer." — None was 
offered, and Charles was, therefore, in your opinion 
altogether unaffected by his promise. 

But, was the promise thus understood at Breda ? 
Could the catholics, so much of whose blood had 
been spilt, so much of whose money had been 
wrenched from them, so many of whose estates had 
been confiscated in the cause of Charles's father 
and his own ; — could the protestant dissenters, who 
had been so active in promoting the restoration, 
and, without whose conspiration, it could not have 
been effected ; — could any of Charles's council, 
who knew the views, the feelings and the expecta- 
tions of the parties ; — could any man then ac- 
quainted with the circumstances of the case, — have 
put this construction upon the monarch's word ? 
A construction under which the protestant dis- 
senters must have remained open to the inflictions 
of the statutes of recusancy, and under which the 
roman-catholics must have continued subject to 
these, and also to the rack and the gibbet ? 

Did not the promise at Breda imply, that all the 
influence of government should be used in pro- 
curing such an act of parliament as it mentions ? 
Were not all the powers of government used to the 
contrary ? Were not new restrictions and new 
penalties inflicted, both upon the roman-catholics 

X 2 



303 PROMISES AT THE [Letter 

and the protestant dissenters ? — Could this be the 
fair construction of the act ? 

Unfortunately, however, it was adopted; and 
the monarch quietly consigned both the protestant 
dissenters and the roman-catholics to the subsisting 
pains, penalties and miseries. — In this you think 
him justified ! 

Thus," to use the language of Hume, *^ all the 

king's fine promises and indulgences to tender 
" consciences were eluded and broken ! It is true 
" that Charles, in his declaration from Breda, had 

expressed his intention to regulate that indul- 

gence by the advice and authority of parliament ; 
" but the limitation could never reasonably be ex- 
** tended to a total infringement of all his arrange- 
" ments." No one knows better than yourself that 
Hume's inclination led him to defend the monarch 
d toute outrange ; and that nothing short of the 
highest degree of glaring criminality would have 
induced Hume to condemn him*. 

* The conduct of the British government to the Irish 
roman-catholics, at the time of the Union, has been said to re- 
semble the conduct of Charles II. to the roman-catholics and 
protestant dissenters, after his restoration. 

That a prospect of emancipation was held out to the Irish 
catholics, to induce them to support the government measure 
of the union, seems to be undeniable. 

1. When Mr. Pitt proposed the articles of union to the 
house of commons, he thus expressed himself: — " No man 
" can say, that, in the present state of things, and while Ireland 

remains a separate kingdom, full concessions can be made 

to the catholics, without endangering the state, and shaking 



XVIII.] UNION WITH IRELAND. 309 

" the constitution to the centre." Is not this saying, that, 
after the union should have taken place, full concessions to 
Ireland might be made without danger? Would not the 
catholics necessarily understand that these concessions would 
then be made? 

2. Such was the language of the minister who proposed 
the union. What is the language of the Act of the Union ? 
" That every one of the lords and commons of the parlia- 
" ment of the United Kingdom, and every member of the 
" United Kingdom, in the first and every succeeding parlia- 
" ment, shall, zmtil the jparliament of the United Kingdom 
" otherwise provide, take the oaths now provided to be taken." 
— Is not this an explicit intimation, that a change of oaths, 
after the union, in favour of the catholics was then contem- 
plated ? that a sure and certain hope of it was held out to 
them ? 

3. Hotv did Mr, Pitt himself understand the terms of the 
concessions? —'Let this be answered in his own words. When 
he explained the cause and motives of his memorable resig- 
nation, he thus expressed himself : — " I, and some of my 
" colleagues in ofBce, did feel it an incumbent duty upon us 
" to propose a measure on the part of the government, which 
" under the circumstances of the union, so happily effected 
" between the two countries, we thought of great public 
'* importance, and necessary to complete the benefits likely 

to result from the measure. We felt this opinion so strongly, 
that, when we met with circumstances which rendered it 
impossible for us to propose it as a measure of government, 

" we felt it equally inconsistent with our duty and our honour 
any longer to remain a part of government. What may he 

" the opinion of others, I knotv not; but I beg to have it under- 
stood to be a measure, tvhich, if I had remained in government^ 

" / must have proposed." 

Does not Mr. Pitt unequivocally avow in these words, 

that he was bound in honour to propose the emancipation of 

the catholics ? 

4. I shall now insert the 'written communications, which, 

X 3 



310 PROMISES AT THE [Letter 

at the time of tvhick we are notv speaking, were made bi/ 
Mr. Pitt and lord Comwallis, and officially delivered by 
lord Castlereagh to doctor Troy, the catholic archbishop in 
Dublin. 

" Mr. Pitt to lord Cornwallis, 

" The leading part of his majesty's ministers, finding hisur- 
" mountahle obstacles to the bringitig forward measures of 
*^ concession to the catholic body whilst in qffice, have felt it 

impossible to continue in administration, under the inability 
'* to propose it, with the circumstances necessary to carrying 
" the measure, with all its advantages ; and they have retired 

from his majesty's service, considering this line of conduct 

as most hkely to contribute to its ultimate success. The 
" catholic bod}?^ will, therefore, see how much their future 

hopes must depend upon strengthening their cause by good 
" conduct in the mean time : they will prudently consider 
" their prospects as arising from the persons who now espouse 
" their interests, and compare them with those which they 
" could look to from any other quarter : they may, with con- 
*^fidence, rely on the zealous support of all those who retire, 
" and of many who remain in office, when it can he giuen with 
" a prospect of success. They may be assured, that Mr. Pitt 

will do his utmost to establish their cause in the public 
" favour, and prepare the way for their finally attaining their 
" objects; and the catholics will feel, that as Mr. Pitt could 
" not concur in an hopeless attempt to force it now, that he 
" must at all times repress, with the same decision as if he 
" held an adverse opinion, any unconstitutional conduct in 

the catholic body. 
" Under these circumstances, it cannot be doubted that 
" the catholics will take the most loyal, dutiful and patient 
" line of conduct ; that they will not suffer themselves to be 
" led into measures which can, by any construction, give a 
" handle to the opposers of their wishes, either to misinterpret 
" their principles, or to raise an argument for resisting their 
" claims: but that, by their prudent and exemplary de- 
" meanour, they will afford additional grounds to the growing 



XVm.] UNION WITH IRELAND. 311 

" number of their advocates, to enforce their claims on proper 
" occasions, until their object can be finally and advantage- 
" ously attained." 

5. The Sentiments of a Sincere Friend, (i. e. Marquis 
Cornxjoallis), to the Catholic Claims : 

" If the catholics should now proceed to violence, or enter- 
" tain any ideas of gaining their object by convulsive measures, 

or forming associations with men of jacobinical principles, 
" they must of course lose the support and aid of those who 
** have sacrificed their own situations in their cause, but who 

would, at the same time, feel it to be their indispensable 
** duty to oppose every thing tending to confusion. 

" On the other hand, should the catholics be sensible of 

the benefit they possess, by having so many characters of 
" eminence pledged not to embark in the service of government, 
" except on the terms of the catholic privileges being obtained, 
" it is to be hoped, that, on balancing the advantages and 
" disadvantages of their situation, they would prefer a quiet 
" and peaceable demeanour to any line of conduct of an 

opposite description." 
6. hi the debate, in the house of commons, on the petition 
of the Irish catholics, on Wednesday the 2^th of May 1808, 
Mr. Elliot thus expressed himself: — 

I do not rise for the purpose of entering into any dis- 
" cussion on the general topic, but in consequence of what 
" has fallen from my noble friend opposite, (lord Castlereagh), 
" merely to advert to the circumstance of the union, of which 

I may be supposed to have some official knowledge ; and 
" the nature of the expectation held out to the catholics, in order 
" to conciliate their acquiescence in this measure. My noble 
" friend has said, that no pledge was given to the catholics, 
" that their full emancipation was to be the inmiediate conse- 
" quence of this measure, in consideration of their support. 
" It is true, indeed, that no bond was given to the catholics 

on that point ; but there were certainly expectations, and 

something like promises held out to them, luhich, in my 

mind, ought to be more binding than a bond. And so strongly 
X 4 



312 CONDUCT OF CATHOLICS [Letter 

" was this idea felt by my noble friend, and the right honour- 
" able gentleman now no more, (Mr. Pitt), that they quitted 
office because they could not carry the measure; and, when 
upon Mr. Pitt's return to office, he opposed the going into 
" the committee, it was not from any objection to the measure, 
but to the time/' 
7. Finally, lord Castlereagh, in his admirable speech on 
the motion made by Mr. Gratta7i, in the year 1819, — a large 
extract from which is inserted in the Historical Memoirs of 
the Enghsh, Irish and Scottish Catholics, — notices, the 
" political incorporation of catholics and protestants, which, 
" upon certain principles, was in contemplation by Mr. Pitt 
" and those who acted with him at the time of the union." 

XVUI. 2. 

Doctor Souther's Criminations of the Roman-catholics 
in his present Chapter. 

1. "It was believed," as you inform us, " that 
" the late troubles,"— (meaning the grand rebel- 
lion and the usurpation),—*' had been insidiously 
" fomented by romish agents, with a view of pro- 

moting the romish cause." What evidence have 
you brought to substantiate these horrid sugges- 
tions ? — suggestions completely destitute of proba- 
bility, and flatly contradicted by the long preceding 
sufferings, and heroic exertions of the roman- 
catholicSj in the royal cause. 

2. "It was then certain," you say, " that the 
" catholics had 'profited by the late troubles, and 
" had made more converts than in any former 
" generation,'* What! profited by the parliamen- 
tary sequestrations of two-thirds of their property I 



XVIII.] DURING THE USURPATION. 313 

You must admit, that this was an extraordinary 
species of profit. As to their success in making 
converts, — I call upon you to prove the fact ; it is 
diametrically contrary to all I have seen, heard, or 
read. 

3. You then mention, that " the catholics re- 
" viled the Marian martyrs in a strain which 

showed how willingly they would have com- 
" menced another persecution." To me this is 
altogether new, and I believe it wholly unfounded ; 
but I beg leave to observe to you, that some of the 
Lutheran protestants spoke of the suffering Marians 
in very contumelious terms. Doctor Maclaine^ 
informs us, that they proceeded so far as to call 
them " the devil's martyrs." 

4. You say, that " the catholics had slighted the 
" king in his exileJ"' I am aware that this is inti- 
mated by lord Clarendon ; but does he mention a 
single instance in which they conducted themselves 
in this manner ? or a single fact which proves his 
charge? The whole tenor of their conduct to 
Charles I. during the contest between him and his 
parliament, and to Charles II. during his conceal- 
ment after the battle of Worcester, so disingenu- 
ously concealed by Lord Clarendon, renders the 
charge utterly improbable. Clarendon's excessive 
dislike, both of the roman-catholics and the pro- 
testant dissenters, is an acknowledged blemish in 
his character. Catholic and loyal are synonymous 
terms : — You know, that, when Mirabeau wished to 



* Translation of Mosheim's History, 2d edit. vol. 4, p, 187. 



314 CORPORATION (Letter 

republicanize his countrymen, he said, " il faut 
" commenger par decathoUger la Frange.^^ 

5. You accuse the roman-catholics of " having 

treated with Cromwell, for taking an oath of 
" submission to his government, as the price of that 

indulgence which he, in his true spirit of tolera- 
" tion, w^as willing to have granted.?" 

But would not such an oath of submission have 
been justifiable ? Would it not have been war- 
ranted, both by every acknowledged principle of 
national law, and by universal usage? But the 
fact is not as you represent it. — The treaty was 
never closed ; those who engaged in it were very 
few ; and they were disavowed. White, a roman- 
catholic- clergyman, who took an active part in it, 
fell into great disrepute, and was reproached for his 
conduct till his latest breath. 

You acquit the roman-catholics of being the 
authors of the Jire of London : You call it a 
" senseless calumny." Then, why is this calumny 
perpetuated by a national monument, and the in- 
scription upon it ? Does there exist in any roman- 
catholic country, with the consent of its govern- 
ment, a monumental marble, that thus, 

" Lifts its head, and lies! " — Pope. 

and excites against one portion of the community 
the prejudice and animosity of the other / 



XVIII.] 



AND TEST ACTS. 



XVIII. 3. 

The Corporation and Test Acts. 

1. I DO not recollect that you take notice of the 
Corporation Act^. The roman-catholics are, in 
common with the protest ant dissenters, subject to 
its penal inflictions. The object of it was to ex- 
clude from corporations some disaflPected persons, 
who had obtained admission into them during the 
preceding troubles : it was not, therefore, directed 
against the roman-catholics, and should not be con- 
tinued in force against them. In fact, the object 
of this act having long waved entirely, is it not 
clear that the time for its total repeal is arrived ? 

2, Of the Test Act'\ I shall only observe, that 
it was passed under the strong apprehensions then 
entertained, of a roman- catholic successor to the 
British throne ; an event, which the bill of rights 
has now rendered utterly impossible : no good 
reason can, therefore, be now assigned for keeping 
it in force. 

* 13 Car. II. s. 2, c. 1, (1661). 
t 25 Car. 11. c. 2. 



316 



EXCLUSION FROM 



[Letter 



XVIIL 4. 

The Act of the'^oth of Charles II. which excludes Roman^ 
catholics from sitting and voting in Parliament. 

In 1821, a bill was brought into parliament for 
the repeal of this act ; it passed the house of com- 
mons, but was lost in the house of lords. While 
it was on the table of that noble house, your cor- 
respondent published " An Inquiry into the De- 
" claration against Transuhstantiation, contained 

in the act of the ^oth of Charles 11, which 
" excluded roman-cathoUcs from parliament." 
I hope you will excuse my inserting it in this let- 
ter, which I have now the honour of addressing 
to you. 

In a few days, the bill, which has passed the 
house of commons, to relieve roman-catholic peers 
from the disabilities imposed upon them by the act 
of the 30th of Charles IL with regard to their right 
of sitting and voting in the house of peers, will 
come under the consideration of the members of 
that noble house. 

It is most clear that every generous mind will 
wish it success : — What peer can behold, indiflPerent 
and unmoved, the duke of Norfolk and the other 
roman-catholic peers, listening to a debate, which is 
to decide, whether, in the time to come, they are to 
enjoy their hereditary seat in the house, or their 
ignominious exclusion from it is to remain for 
ever ? 

* 30 Car. IL s. 2, c. 1. 



XVIIIJ PARLIAMENT. 317 

" Assuredly it must be acknowledged, that, either 
to make it the duty or to reconcile it to the feelings 
of any peer, to vote for a continuance of this ex- 
clusion, the very strongest case must be supposed ; 
■ — or, in other words, that it must be demonstra- 
tively proved, that the admission of half a dozen 
catholic peers to exercise their hereditary right of 
sitting and voting in the house of peers, will expose 
his majesty's person and government to real danger. 
— Nothing short of this can justify a measure, thus 
bitter and contumelious. Now, can the existence 
of this danger be gravely contended? — Has the 
crown, the state, or the law any better friends? 
Any, upon whose loyalty and attachment, under 
all imaginable circumstances, they can more con- 
fidently or more completely rely, than those, who 
profess the roman -catholic religion ? 

" This, the divine eloquence of Mr. Fox, Mr. 
Pitt, Mr. Burke, Mr, Grattan, Mr. Canning, 
Mr. Plunkett, and the other illustrious advocates 
of the catholic cause, has repeatedly urged. I trust 
that these noble effusions of oratory are present to 
the recollection of every noble personage, before 
whom the subject now comes for discussion. The 
wickedness of the act of Charles II. its injustice and 
impolicy, and the injustice and impolicy of preserv- 
ing it in activity in the present state of things, were 
unanswerably proved by the right honourable mover 
of the bill*. His speech is deservedly the theme of 
universal admiration and applause. In the memory 
* The Right honourable George Canning. 



318 OATH AGAINST [Letter 

of the grateful catholics it will ever live. They are 
an honourable body;^ — a person, who has thus 
deserved well of them, has not lived in vain. 

" The bill is now on the table of the house of lords ; 
and their lordships are now to decide on its justice 
and policy. On the latter, I shall say nothing ; 
but I beg leave to offer some observations on the 
former. I submit them in a particular manner, 
(but with the utmost deference and humility), to 
the venerable prelates of the national church. To 
their opinions and feelings, especially on all ques- 
tions that regard religious or moral bearings of any 
legislative measure, the house, (and I may add), 
the public at large, pay the greatest respect.— Their 
attention, therefore, to the following observations 
may, without impropriety, be, I apprehend, parti- 
cularly solicited. 

" The point which I mean to consider is. Whe- 
ther A PROTESTANT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 

can conscientiously make the declaration against 
transuhstantiation and the invocation of saints con- 
tained in the act of the 30th of Charles 11, and 
required hy that act to be taken by the members 
of both houses before they sit and vote in parlia- 
ment. 

" This declaration is a solemn affirmation : — The 
Divine Being is solemnly adjured to witness it ; 
and to attest the party's belief that what he affirms 
is true: — The declaration, therefore, is a sacred 
act of religion. 

Every person, who makes this declaration, 



XVIII.] TRANSUBSTANTIATION, &c. 319 

swears, " That he doth believe that there is not 
" any transuhstantiation of the elements of bread 
" and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at 
" or after the consecration thereof by any person 
" whomsoever — and that the invocation or 
" adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other saint, 
" and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now 
^* used, in the church of Rome, are superstitious 
" and idolatrous 

" All must admit, that to make this declaration, 
and to swear to it with a safe conscience, the person 
who makes it, and swears to the belief of its truth, 
has a clear and precise knowledge of the meaning 
of all the words which it contains; and should, 
therefore, clearly understand what the words sacra- 
ment, transuhstantiation, invocation, adoration and 
the sacrifice of the mass, mean, in the sense in 
which they are propounded in the declaration. 

" Now — can it be seriously said, that this is 
the case? 

" 1. As a preliminary observation, I may remark, 
that the declaration expressly terms that religious 
rite, which is called our Lord's Supper, a sacra- 
ment : — But — the disciples ofHoadley, ( and these 
unquestionably form a large proportion of the 
clergy of the church of England), deny even the 
existence of a sacrament ; — all the disciples of that 
distinguished prelate think the word sacrament" 

* Doctor Southey will, perhaps, inform us, in some future 
edition of his *' Book of the Church," whether protestants 
may conscientiously take this oath. 



320 OATH AGAINST [Letter 

is a word without a meaning. When therefore, in 
the declaration, they call "our Lord's Supper" 
a "sacrament," they call it that, which they them- 
selves affirm to have no existence.- — Can it be said 
that any, who are of this opinion, can make the 
declaration with a safe concience ? 

"2. Without dwelling on this point, (which how- 
ever seems to deserve some consideration), permit 
me to ask if a person can conscientiously affirm 
upon his oath, that " there is not any transub- 

stantiation in the sacrament,'^ unless by due in- 
quiry he has previously ascertained that there is 
none F 

"To ascertain this, he must settle that the word 
transubstantiation uniformly means the absolute an- 
nihilation of one substance, and the substitution of 
another in its place ; and that it is never used by 
approved writers to mean the transference of one 
substance into another. If the word transubstan- 
tiation bear the latter meaning, no protestant, who 
believes the real presence, (and all protestants of 
the established church of England profess to be- 
lieve it), can conscientiously swear, or even simply 
affirm the negative. — Now, that the transubstan- 
tiation will bear the latter meaning, some of the 
most eminent lights of the church of England are 
agreed^* — Can it then be thought decent, — can it 

* See the Essay on Catholic Communion, 8vo. : the wjrk 
of a protestant divine, first published in the year 1 704. The 
third and best edition was printed in 1812. In referring to 
this work, I refer also to the authorities cited in it. 



XVIir.] TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 321 

be considered consistent with the sacredness of an 
oath, to swear to the belief of the contrary, without 
any limitation or explanation whatever ? 

" 3. Other words in the declaration are a fair 
subject for a similar inquiry. Admitting, however, 
(but we humbly conceive this is not always the case), 
that the party who makes the declaration fully 
understands the meaning of ail these words, can 
he, with a safe conscience, declare upon his oath, 
that the sacrifice of the mass, the invocation of the 
Virgin Mary, and the other saints, as used in the 
church of Rome, "are superstitious and idolatrous ?" 
Surely, to make this declaration upon oath, with 
a scLfe conscience, a pei^son should possess a clear 
knowledge of the doctrines of the catholic church 
of Rome on all these heads.— ^ow, those only can 
be said to have this knowledge, who have read the 
expositions given of them by the church of Rome 
in her own decrees, or by her own approved writers. 
— 'How very few have examined either! 

" 4. We shall first consider transubstantiation 
and the mass. 

" Doctor Taylor, the bishop of Down, than 
whom the whole protestant church boasts no fairer 
name, and who had fully examined the points in 
question, declared, after his examination of them, 
that the doctrine of the catholic church upon them 
was not idolatrous ^. " The object,^' says this 

* In his Liberty of Prophecying, sect. 20. 
Y 



322 OATH AGAINST [Letter 

learned and eloquent prelate, " of their adoration 
" in the sacrament, is the only true and eternal 
God, hypostatically united with his holy hu- 
" manity, which humanity they believe actually 
" present under the veil of the sacrament : — and, 
" if they thought him not present, they are so far 
" from worshipping the bread, that they profess it 
" idolatry to do so. This is demonstration that 
the soul has nothing in it that is idolatrical ; the 
" will has nothing in it that is not a great enemy 
" to idolatry." — Thorndyke, the learned prebend- 
ary of Westminster*, mentions with indignation 
that a charge of idolatry should be brought against 
catholics, in consequence of their belief of transub- 
stantiation. Will any papist," says this distin- 
guished writer, acknowledge that he honours the 

elements of the eucharist for God ? Will com- 
" mon sense charge him with honouring that in 
" the sacrament, which he believes not to be there?" 
— " It is a monstrous error," says bishop Cosin t, 

to deny that Christ is to be adored in the eu- 

charist." 

Many other protestant authorities to the same 
effect might be cited, but this is not a place for 
such citations. We must however beg leave to add 
bishop Kenn's expression in his Exposition^'* 
licensed in 1685, — O Grod incarnate, how thou 
canst give us thy flesh to eat, and thy blood to 

* Just Weights and Measures, c. 19. 
t History of Transubstantiation. 



XVIII.] TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 323 

drink ; how thy flesh is meat indeed ; how thou, 
who art in heaven, art present upon the altar, 
I can by no means explain : but I firmly believe 
it all, because thou hast said it/' 
" Where such high authorities concur in a deli- 
berate and solemn opinion upon any subject, it cer- 
tainly is allowable to dissent from them ; but, is it 
allowable, is it decent, is it even safe to affirm 
a contrary opinion upon oath ? — To do it after 
a long and serious examination is somewhat hazard- 
ous ; to do it without any examination, must be 
rashness in the extreme. 

What would the barons of the exchequer have 
said of a person, who, on a late trial for the adulte- 
ration of beer, had sworn that no quassia had been 
infused into it, and had afterwards confessed on 
cross-examination, that he took what he said upon 
trust, and had himself never examined the com- 
position? — Where is the real difference between 
the cases ? Does it require less rectitude to swear, 
— but the awfulness of the subject withholds me 
from pursuing the interrogation. 

" We may ask, v^^hether, if idolatry be chargeable 
on transuhstantiation, it be not chargeable, with 
equal justice, on co7isuhsta7itiation and impanation^ 
one or other of which is maintained in every pro- 
testant creed ? If it be chargeable on these doc- 
trines, it evidently follows, that, when a person 
swears transubstantiation to be idolatrous, he equally 
swears to his belief, that all who maintain the doc- 

Y 2 



324 OATH AGAINST [Letter 

trine of the real presence, whether catholic or pro- 
testant, are idolaters ; — that all his own catholic 
ancestors were idolaters; — that all existing roman- 
catholics are idolaters ; — that all the members of the 
Greek church, and the oriental churches, are ido- 
laters — that the fathers of the established church of 
England, Cranmer, Ridley, and the other protestant 
divines, who framed the communion service in 
1548, were idolaters;— that queen Elizabeth, who 
patronized the doctrine of the real presence, was an 
idolater ; —that the eminent divines, who, by her 
desire, framed the thirty nine articles and the 
liturgy, in terms designedly so comprehensive, as to 
let in the believers of transubstantiation, were idola- 
ters ; — and, (if we believe doctor Bramhall, bishop 
of Derry), that all true believers of the genuine 
doctrine of the church of England are idolaters. 
*' No genuine son of that church," says this celebrated 
prelate*, " did ever deny a true real presence." 

"If idolatry is chargeable on consubstantiation, as 
much as it is on transubstantiation, (and it would 
most assuredly be found difficult to show that it is 
not), then, as consubstantiation is an acknowledged 
tenet of the Augustan confession, and therefore 
received by every lutheran, our late venerable 
monarch married an idolater. 

" 5. Thus far respecting transubstantiation and 
the mass. We proceed to the doctrine of the invo^ 
cation of the Virgin Mary and the other saints, 

* Answer to Militiere's Triumph of Truth, p. 74. 



XVIII.j INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 325 

We have seen that eveiy person, who makes the 
declaration, affirms, upon oath, his belief that these 
doctrines, as they are used in the church of Rome, 
are " idolatrous and superstitious.^' 

But, of those, who thus swear this doctrine of the 
church of Rome to be idolatrous and superstitious, 
how few, how very few, have taken due pains to 
ascertain it ! I beg leave to state this doctrine of 
the catholic church, in a very few lines, from autho- 
rities which all must allow to be unquestionable. 

" It was thus defined at the Council of Trent, by 
the pope, and nearly 300 roman-catholic prelates, 
assembled from every part of the catholic world: — 
" The saints reigning with Christ, offer up their 

prayers to God for men ^ it is good and useful 
" suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse 
*^ to their prayers, help and assistance, to obtain 

favours from God, through his Son Jesus Christ 

our Lord, who is alone our Redeemer and 

Saviour.^* 

In conformity to this doctrine, the Catechism 
of Pope Pius V, teaches, that God and the saints 
*' are not to be prayed to in the same manner ; for 
" we pray to God that he himself would give us 
" good things, and deliver us from evil things ; 
" but we beg of the saints, (because they are 
pleasing to God), that they would be our advo- 
" cates, and obtain from him what we stand in need 
'* of." This is most explicitly taught in all our 
catechisms. Roman-catholic children, in their very 

Y 3 



326 OATH AGAINST [Letter 

first catechism, are asked the following questions, 
and give the following answers : — Q. Does the 
second commandment forbid the making of 
images? A. It forbids the making of them so as 
" to adore them ; that is, it forbids making them 
" our gods. — ^Q. Does this commandment forbid all 
honour and veneration of the saints and angels ? 
^' A. No ; we are to honour them as God's special 
" friends and servants, but not with the honour 
" that belongs to God." — The catechisms for the 
adult express the same doctrine, but in stronger 
terms. Doctor Chalioner's Summary of Chris- 
tian Doctrine," prefixed to The Garden of the 
Soul," the most popular Prayer Book of the 
English roman-catholics, lays down the same doc- 
trine; and in " The Papist Misrepresented and 
Represented," published by the reverend Mr. 
Gother, our most eminent controversialist in the 
seventeenth century, and often republished by doc- 
tor Challoner, (the seventeenth edition of it is now 
before me), the following anathema is pronounced 
against the idolatrous worship of the saints:— 
Cursed is he that believes the saints in heaven to 
be his redeemers ; that prays to them as such ; 
" or that gives God's honour to them, or to any 
" creature whatsoever. Amen." 

" Here, then, let me ask, whether, after perus- 
ing these passages, (and a thousand like them 
might be produced to him), any protestant of any 
description can honourably and conscientiously, 



XVIII.] INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 327 

even in common conversation, charge idolatry on 
the doctrine of the catholic church, thus solemnly, 
explicitly, and authoritatively professed and ex- 
plained by herself? 

" Some passages in a few catholic books of devo- 
tion, some practices of a few uninstructed catholics, 
in which the devotion to the saints has been carried 
to an improper length, and is therefore justly repre- 
hensible, may be produced : I admit it. — But these 
are as much condemned by the constituted autho- 
rities of the catholic church, as they can be by any 
protestants. Would not the divines of the protest- 
ant churches have just cause of complaint, if the 
reveries of Jacob Behmen, Swedenborg, or Joanna 
Southcote, were charged upon their churches? 
" Look to our articles, to our homilies, to our 
" books of common prayer," they would justly 
say. The catholics say the same : Look to our 
" councils, to our authorized catechisms and prayer- 

books ; try us by those. — And, tried by these, 
" can you seriously say that our doctrine, respect- 

ing the invocation of the saints, is idolatrous ? — 

can you even call it irrational ? " 

'* 6. Several of the most eminent protestant divines 
have acquitted this doctrine of the catholics from 
the charge of idolatry. Doctor Luther acquitted 
them of it : archbishop Sheldon^ bishops Blandfordy 
Gunnings Montague^ and many other of the bright- 
est lights of the established church, have acquitted 
them of it. — Bishop Montague^ in particular, 

Y 4 



328 OATH AGAINST [Letter 

owns, that the blessed in heaven do recommend 
" to God, in their prayers, their kindred, friends, 

and acquaintance on earth." " This," saith the 
learned prelate, is the common voice with the 
*' general concurrence, without contradiction, of 
" reverend and learned antiquity, for aught I ever 
" could read or understand 3 and I see no cause or 
" reason to dissent from them touching intercession 

in this kind 

- ■. " The faculty of the luiheran university of 
Helmstadt acquitted them of it. On the marriage 
of the princess Christiria of Woifenbuttle, a luthe- 
ran, with the archduke of Austria, her court con- 
sulted that faculty, ^' Whether a protestant princess, 
*' destined to marry a catholic prince, could, without 
" wounding her conscience, embrace the roman- 
catholic religion? " The faculty replied, that it 
could not answer the proposed question in a 
" solid manner, without having previously decided, 
V' whether the catholics were or were not engaged 
a -j^ errors that were fundamental, or opposed 
to salvation ? Or, which was the same thing, 
whether the state of the catholic church were 
such, that persons might practise in it the true 
worship of God, and arrive at salvation ?" The 
question thus raised by them, the divines of Helm- 
stadt discussed at length, and concluded in these 
terms : " After having thus shown, that the foun- 

* For this, and the other authorities referred to, see the 
Essay already cited, c. 3. 



XVIII.] INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 329 

" dation of religion subsists in the roman-catholic 
" religion, so that a person may be orthodox in it, 
" live well in it, die well in it, and obtain salvation 
in it, the decision of the proposed question is easy: 
We are of opinion, that the most serene princess 
" of Wolfenbuttle may, in favour of her marriage, 
" embrace the catholic religion." This opinion is 
dated the 28th of April, 1687, and was printed in 
the same year at Cologne. Now, if the doctrines 
of the transubstantiation and the mass, or the invo- 
cation of the saints, as they are used in the church 
of Rome, were idolatrous and superstitious, persons 
could not practise in that church the true worship 
of God, or arrive in it at salvation ; they could not 
be orthodox in it, or live well in it, or die well in it, 
or obtain salvation in it. But, in direct opposition 
to this theological .oath of the British legislature, 
the lutheran divines of Helmstadt, specially and 
solemnly consulted, declared that the doctrines of 
transubstantiation, the mass, and the invocation of 
the saints, as used in the church of Rome, are not 
idolatrous or superstitious ; and assured an illus- 
trious Brunswicker, that, in the church professing 
them, she might safely live and safely die. 

"I shall cite two more protestant authorities ; they 
apply equally to transubstantiation and the mass, 
and to the invocation of saints. Leibniz, (certainly 
one of the greatest literary characters whom the 
world has produced), has, in his Systema Theo- 
logicum^ discussed, with admirable candour, all the 



330 OATH AGAINST [Letter 

controverted tenets of catholic faith, and pronounced 
the catholic doctrines, in question, not to be ido- 
latrous. 

" With one further authority only I shall trouble 
my readers ^, 

" Bo swell. What do you think of the idolatry 
" of the mass ? 

Johnson, Sir, there is no idolatry. 

They believe God to be there, and adore him. 

" Bo swell. The invocation of the saints ? 

" Johnson, They do not worship the 
" SAINTS ; they invoke them ; they only ask their 
" prayers/* 

" 7. One further question let me ask. Are not 
catholics married by protestant clergymen ? Are 
they not married in protestant churches ? Do not 
protestant bishops often marry them ? Could this 
be done, if they were idolaters? Do the peers, 
who, or whose sons or whose daughters have mar- 
ried catholics, suppose they have married idolaters? 

" Here we pause. — We repeat, that it is far from 
our wish to discuss, or even to assert in this place, 
the truth of the catholic doctrines, on the points we 
have noticed. — But, 

" Be that DOCTRINE TRUE, OR BE IT FALSE, 

can any person, in his cool and deliberate judgment, 
say, that the legislature of the United Kingdom can 
worthily or wisely require any of its subjects to 

* The Life of Dr. Johnson, by Mr. Beswell, vol. 1, p. 561, 
2d edit. 



XVIIL] TRANSUBSTANTIATION, &c. 331 

assert, with the solemn asseveration of an oath, 
either the affirmative or negative belief of a doc- 
trine, upon which the highest authorities, even of 
their own church, have been, are, and probably till 
the latest time, will continue to be divided ? 

" Surely the sacredness of an oath, which never 
should be taken, if the truth of what is sworn to 
admits of reasonable doubt, — -good sense, which is 
shocked by the language of the declaration, — the 
terms of amity which subsist between the United 
Kingdom and many catholic states, and which ren- 
der the declaration an uncivil state paper, — the lit- 
tleness in wounding unnecessarily the feelings of 
that proportion of the community which is catholic, 
(for a protestant is not more hurt at a Turk's 
calling him a christian dog, than a catholic is at a 
protestanfs calling him an idolater ), — the impo- 
licy of keeping any thing in existence, which un- 
necessarily insults and irritates, — the acknowledged 
wisdom and expediency of every legislative or mini- 
sterial measure, which promotes a reciprocity of 
good-will and conciliation, — and, above all, the 
MERITS, — we confidently say it, the merits of 
THE CATHOLICS, — scom to poiut out the propriety 
of repealing this objectionable and inofficious 
declaration.'* 



332 



OATES'S PLOT. 



[Letter 



XVIIL 5. 
Oatesh Plot. 

You call, what you term the popish plot, an 
infamous affair : thus Hume, thus Fox, thus every 
other person of honour and talent, describes it ; 
then, why are the oaths to which it gave rise, and 
under which so many roman-catholics actually 
suffer, still kept in force? 

I beg leave to transcribe Mr. Fox's observations 
upon it. — " Although, therefore," these are that 
great man's words, " upon a review of this truly 
" shocking transaction, we may be fairly justified in 
adopting the milder alternative, and in imputing 
" to the greater part of those concerned in it, rather 
" an extraordinary degree of blind credulity, than 
the deliberate wickedness of planning and assist- 
" ing in the perpetration of legal murder; yet the 
proceedings on the popish plot must always be con- 
sidered as an indelible disgrace upon the English 
" nation, in which king, parliament, judges, juries, 
witnesses, prosecutors, have all their respective, 
" though certainly not equal, shares. Witnesses, of 
" such a character as not to deserve credit in the 
" most trifling cause, upon the most immaterial facts, 
" gave evidence so incredible, or, — to speak more 
" properly,— so impossible to be true, that it ought 
" not to have been believed if it had come from the 
" mouth of Cato; and upon such evidence, from 
** such witnesses, were innocent men condemned to 
** death and executed. Prosecutors, whether attor- 



XVIII.] OATES'S PLOT. 333 

" nies and solicitors-general, or managers of im- 
" peachment, acted with the fury which, in such 
" circumstances, might be expected ; juries partook, 
" naturally enough, of the national ferment ; and 
" judges, whose duty it was to guard them against 
" such impressions, were scandalously active in con- 

firming them in their prejudices, and inflaming 
" their passions," — " Lord chief justice Seroggs," 
doctor Milner justly observes, took in with the 
" side, and ranted for the plot ; hewing down popery, 
" as Scanderberg did the Turks. The attorney- 

general used to say on the trials for murder, ' if 
" the man be a papist, then he is guilty, because it 

is the interest of papists to murder us all'*." 
I am aware, that the number of the sufferers for 
Oates's plot falls very short of the number of those 
whom you term the Marian martyrs : but permit 
me to ask you, which, in your cool deliberate judg- 
ment, was the worst spirit, — that which consigned 
the victims of Gates's subornations to the gibbet, or 
that which consigned the Marian martyrs to the 
flames? Surely, if we should be called upon to 
strike a balance between Mary's persecutions and 
the legal murders for Oates's plot, we must confess 
that the latter is by far the greater disgrace to the 
English nation f . 

* North's Examen, p. 1 30 ; Doctor Milrier's Seventh 
Letter to Doctor Sturges, p. 304, 7th edit. 
' t In 1G80, while the memory of this transaction was still 
recent, an argumentative and eloquent vindication of the 
sufferers was published, under the title of " The Papists' 
" Plea." It was afterwards printed among lord Somers's tracts. 



t 

334 OATES'S PLOT. [Letter 

I must add, that you must not estimate the suffer- 
ings of the roman-catholics for Oates's plot, by the 
number of those who perished for it on the scaffold. 
All the laws against them were, from the time of 
the first mention of the plot, till the end of the 
reign of Charles IL executed upon them with the 
most horrid severity. Individuals are still living, 
whose fathers have told them what their fathers 
used to relate of the wretchedness and misery of 
the general body, whilst the delusion lasted. Even 
at that distance of time, few could speak of it with- 
out evident agitation and horror : they appeared to 
shrink even from the recollection of it. 

For their supposed part in the plot, ten laymen 
and seven priests, (one of whom was seventy, and 
another eighty years old), were executed. Eight 
other priests were hanged and embowelled in the 
reign of Charles IL for the mere exercise of their 
functions^ without any reference to the plot. 

— A still more powerful defence of the catholics is, the Apo- 
" logie pour les Catholiques, contre les Faussetes et les 

Caloranies d'un Livre, intitule, * 'La Politique du Clerge de 

France, fait premierement en France, et puis traduit en 
" Flamand;--a Liege, 1681, 2 vols. 8yo." The celebrated 
Arnaud was the author of the work: it has seldom been 
equalled, either in powerful reasoning or splendid eloquence. 
But the fullest and best account of the plot is to be found in, 

An historical Narrative of the horrid Plot and Conspiracy 
*' of Titus Gates, called the Popish Plot, in its various branches 
" and progress, selected from the most authentic protestant 

historians ; in which are added, some cursory Observations 
" on the Test Act, by Mr. WiUiam Eusebius Andrews, 1818, 
" 1 vol, 3vo." 



XVIlI.j FENELON'S PRAYER FOR PEACE. 335 

With the reign of Charles II. the sanguinary 
part of the penal code, against the roman-catholics, 
finally closed. 

The whole number of those who have suffered 
death in England for their religion, since the Refor- 
mation, is as follows: — 

In the reign of Henry VIII. - - 5^ 
- - - of queen Elizabeth - 204 

- of king James I. - - 25 

- - - - of Charles I. and during^ 

the rebellion - -J 

- - - - of Charles II. - - 8 



319 



I am confident that this number is not exag- 
gerated : every research which I have made respect- 
ing the sufferings of the English roman-catholics, 
until the accession of his late majesty, has convinced 
me that the extent of them is not known. 

These are unpleasing topics. May ^' the Book 
" of the Church" be the last work which renders 
the mention of them necessary. ^' May," — permit 
me to exclaim with Fenelon, — " the kingdom of 
" truth, where there is no error, no scandal, no 
" division, — where God will communicate to it 
*^ universal peace, — soon arrive !" 



336 



BILL OF RIGHTS. 



[Letter 



XVIIL 6. 
JAMES THE SECOND. 

Bill of Rights — Acts of Settlement. 

In the Historical Memoirs of the English, 
" Irish and Scottish Catholics," I have expressed 
my sentiments upon the conduct of James II.: — my 
opinion that, in theory, his project for effecting 
a general religious toleration, was entitled to praise ; 
but that, as the public mind was not disposed to 
receive it favourably, it was unwise ; and that the 
means which he adopted for carrying it into execu- 
tion were unconstitutional. I shall now only add, 
that none disapproved of his measures more than 
the catholics : *' All judicious persons of the catho- 
" lie communion," says Hume, " were disgusted 
" with them, and foresaw their consequences. Lord 

Arundell, lord Powis, and lord Bellasyse, remon- 
" strated against them, and suggested more mode- 

rate councils. When lord Tyrconnel disclosed 
" James's plan for catholicizing Ireland, lord Bel- 
" lasyse declared, ' his majesty was a fool and a 
" madman enough to ruin ten kingdoms.' " 

To the Bill of Rights, and the Acts of Settle- 
ment, no portion of his majesty's subjects more 
constitutionally submits, than the roman-catholics : 
they only suggest, that no construction of the Bill of 
Rights, and no inferences from it, should be adopted 
to their prejudice, unless they are warranted by a fair 
construction of the words of the acts. They pro- 



XVIIL] ACTS OF SETTLEMENT. 

test against any interpretation of them that amounts 
to legislation. They are sensible that the legisla- 
ture has a right to interpret its acts, and that it is 
the duty of subjects to submit to its interpretation ; 
but they conceive, that this legislative right of inter- 
pretation is always exceeded, when the interpreta- 
tion of legislative acts is extended to cases or pro- 
visions not contemplated by the legislature that 
framed them. The only case in the contemplation 
of the legislators of the Bill of Rights and the 
Acts of Settlement, was the succession of a roman- 
catholic to the crown : the only means to prevent 
it, in their contemplation, was the infliction of 
an actual disability of succession upon all roman- 
catholics and their heirs. It evidently follows, 
that the grant to the roman- catholics of any boon, 
short of a removal of this disability, does not 
reach the Bill of Rights, or the Acts of Settlement, 
and that it is incongruous to urge them against it. 

On this important subject, I beg leave to refer 
you to Mr. Canning and Mr. Plunkett's unan- 
swered and unanswerable printed speeches. Can 
it give you pleasure to think, on the religion and 
merits of the roman-catholics, differently from these 
great men ? or from Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and Mr. 
Burke, who, agreeing in nothing else, agreed in 
defending the roman-catholics, in panegyrizing their 
conduct, and strenuously advocating their emanci- 
pation ? Would any of these eminent men have 
approved of " the Book of the Church," or the 
spirit which appears to have dictated it ? 



338 



RGMAN-CATHOLICS NOT 



[Letter 



XVIII. 7> 

CONCLUSION. 

Doctor Southey's repeated Charge of Superstition and 
Idolatry against the Roman-catholics. 

These words are the burthen of " the Book of 
the Church." In the page of it which is now 
j^efore me, they occur for the last time. To the 
ear of a roman-catholic, when they are applied to 
his religion, they are the most offensive words in 
language. 

1 . You have seen, in a preceding page, that the 
divines of the university of Helmstadt declared, on 
a solemn occasion, and in a very solemn manner, 
that " the foundation of religion subsists in the 
" roman-catholic church ; so that a person may be 
" orthodox in it, live well in it, die well in it, and 
" obtain salvation in it."— Where, then, in the 
opinions of the divines of Helmstadt, are its 

SUPERSTITION AND IDOLATRY ?" 

2. You know what advances to a reconciliation 
were made by Bossuet, and Leibniz, and Molanus, 
the lutheran abbot of Lockhum *. " The abbot," 
says Bossuet, " has actually conciliated the points 
" so essential of justification and the eucharist ; 

* CEuvres Posthumes de Bossuet, vol. i, nouvelle Edition; 
des CEuvres de Bossuet, vol. 12 ; Leibnizii Opera Stud. Lud, 
Duteiis, vol. 1, c. 5; and the Pensees de Leibniz, 2 vols. 8vo.- 



XVIII.] SUPERSTITIOUS AND IDOLATROUS. 8^39 

" nothing is wanting to him on that side, but that 
he should be avowed. Why should we not hope 
" to conclude in the same manner disputes less 
" difficult and of less importance ! " Surely then, 
therefore, Leibniz and Molanus saw, in the church 
of Rome, no " superstition or idolatry." 

3. ¥ou know that Leibniz was one of the most 
learned men and most profound philosophers whom 
the world has produced : — read his Sy sterna 

Theologicum.^' He discusses in it, article by 
article, the whole creed of the roman- catholic 

<jhurch: He discovers in none of its tenets 

" superstition or idolatry." 

4, You know in what terms of respect other pro- 
testants have spoken of the church of Rome. To 
some of these I have referred in the preceding ar- 
ticle. Permit me now to refer you to Melancthon's 
letter to cardinal Campegio, published by Beausobre 
in his valuable History of the Reformation ; it shows 
how nearly, at one time, matters were thought to 
be accommodated between the catholic church and 
the lutherans : — Permit me also to refer you to 
the Memoir which accomi^amed the Corifession of 
Augsburg, when it was presented to Charles V. 
in which it was requested, — " 1st, That the pope 
" would have the goodness to concede to the pro- 
'Vtestants communion under both kinds, particu- 
" larly as the protectants did not blame those who 
" communicated in one kind only ; and confessed 
" that the body of Jesus Christ entire, together 

with his blood, was received under the sole species 

z 2 



340 ROMAN-CATHOLICS NOT [Letter 

of bread 2dlyj That his holiness would allow 
" the marriage of priests i — 3dly, That he would 
" allow, or at least tolerate, the marriages already 
" contracted by priests, or other religious persons, 

and dispense with their vows. As to their mass," 
says the writer of the Memoir, ^'we retain its prin- 

cipal ceremonies." The distinction of meats and 
other observances, Melancthon treats as secondary 
points, to be easily settled. 

Beausobre considers the authenticity of the Letter 
and Memoir to be unquestionable. *^ Nor are we," 
says Beausobre, " to hold Melancthon alone re- 
" sponsible for this relaxation, as it appears that the 
" protestant princes declared to the mediators, that, 
" if they would permit communion under both 

kinds, the marriage of priests, and the celebration 

of mass, according to their reformation of it, and 
" this only till the decision of the council should 
" be obtained upon these points, they were willing 

to obey in the rest." Beausobre also brings 
strong reasons to show, that these propositions were 
not suggested without the knowledge of Luther. 
Thus Melancthon, and the theologians who co- 
operated with him*, saw, in the roman-catholic 
church, no " superstition or idolatry." 

5. Cardinal Pallavicini mentions, on the authority 
of a letter of the cardinal legate Campegio, that 

the parties were on the foot of coming to an 
" agreement, when some injudicious publications, 

which he mentions, rekindled the discord/' 
* I.ib. 3, c. 5. 



XVIII.] SUPERSTITIOUS AND IDOLATROUS. 341 

Probably those injudicious publications talked 
of " POPERY," and its " superstition and ido- 

" LATRY." 

Greatly indeed is it to be lamented, that, where 
such a general disposition of conciliation appeared, 
and such near approaches to it were actually made, 
any thing should have prevented its completion ! 

With the reign of James II. you close your work; 
the task which I have imposed upon myself is there- 
fore finished. 



With many thanks to you for the pleasure I have 
derived from many of your former publications, 

I have the honour to be, 

With the greatest respect, 
Your most obedient servant, 

CHARLES BUTLER. 

Lincoln's-Inn, 
4th November 1824. 



( 343 ) 



APPENDIX. 



Note I. 

Opinions of Foreign Universities on the temporal Power 
of the Pope, referred to in page 124. 

pursuance of Mr. Pitt's suggestions, three ques- 
tions were sent to the universities of the Sorbonne, 
Louvaine, Douay, Alcala and Salamanca. They were 
expressed in the following terms, and received the fol- 
lowing answers : 

" 1 . Has the pope or cardinals, or any body of men, 

or any individual of the church of Rome, any civil 
" authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence what- 

soever, within the realm of England ? 

" 2. Can the pope or cardinals, or any body of men, or 

any individual of the church of Rome, absolve or dis- 
" pense with his majesty's subjects, from their oath of 
" allegiance, upon any pretext whatsoever ? 

" 3. Is there any principle in the tenets of the catholic 
" faith, by which catholics are justified in not keeping 

faith with heretics, or other persons differing from 
" them in religious opinions, in any transaction, either 
" of a public or a private nature? 

The universities answered unanimously: 

" 1 . That the pope or cardinals, or any body of men, or 
" any individual of the church of Rome, has not, nor 
" have any civil authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre- 
" eminence whatsoever, within the realm of England. 



344 APPENDIX. [Note 

" 2. That the pope or cardinals, or any body of men, 
" or any individual of the church of Rome, cannot ab- 
" solve or dispense v^ith his majesty's subjects, from 
" their oath of allegiance, upon any pretext M^hatsoever. 

" 3. That there is no principle in the tenets of the 
" catholic faith, by v^^hich catholics are justified in not 
" keeping faith v^^ith heretics, or other persons differing 
" from them in religions opinions, in any transactions, 
" either of a public or a private nature." 

The opinions of the universities of the Sorbonne, 
Louvaine, and Douay were first received, and v^ere 
transmitted to Mr. Pitt with the following letter. 

« Sir, 

" The committee of the English catholics have the 
" honour to lay before you, the opinions of the univer- 
" sities of Sorbonne, Louvaine and Douay, which have 

been transmitted to us in consequence of your desire. 

" You will, we hope, see, from these opinions, that 
" the sentiments of the most famous foreign bodies per- 
" fectly coincide with those which we had the honour 
" of stating to you last year, as our firm and sincere 
" tenets. 

" At the same time, we beg leave to call to your re- 
" membrance, that our opinions were fully stated to you 
" previously to the obtaining those of the foreign uni- 
*' versities ; and that they were consulted, not as the 
" rule by which we form our ideas of the duties of good 
" subjects, but as a collateral proof to you, that our 
" sentiments are consonant to those of the most en- 
" lightened and famous bodies of catholic divines on the 
" Continent upon these subjects. 

" We have the honour to be," 8cc. 



II.] APPENDIX. 345 

As soon as the other opinions were received, the 
committee transmitted them also to Mr. Pitt. 

A translation of all these answers is inserted in the 
Appendix to the first volume of Mr. Butler's " Histo- 
" rical Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish 

Catholics." 



Note II. 

The Oath taken hy the Ejtglish Roman-catholics, under 
the Provisions of the Act passed for their Relief in 
the Year 1791. 

" \, A. B., do hereby declare, that I do profess the 
" roman-catholic religion. 

1, A. B.y do sincerely promise and swear, that I will 
" be faithful, and bear true allegiance to his majesty 
" king George the third, and him will defend, to the 
" utmost of my power, against all conspiracies and 
" attempts whatever that shall be made against his per- 
" son, crown or dignity ; and I will do my utmost en- 
" deavour to disclose and make known to his majesty, 
" his heirs and successors, all treasons and traitorous 
" conspiracies which may be formed against him or 
" them : And I do faithfully promise to maintain, sup- 
*' port and defend, to the utmost of my power, the suc- 
cession of the crown; which succession, by an act^ 
intituled, ' An Act for the further Limitation of the 
" Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of 
" the Subject,' is and stands limited to the princess 
" Sophia, electress and duchess dowager of Hanover, 
" and the heirs of her body, being protestants ; hereby 

A a 



346 APPENDIX. [Note- 

" utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience or al- 
" legiance unto any other person claiming or pretending 
" a right to the crown of these realms : And I do swear, 
" that I do reject and detest, as an unchristian and im- 
" pious position, that it is lawful to murder or destroy 
" any person or persons whatsoever, for or under pre- 

tence of their being heretics or infidels ; and also, 
" that unchristian and impious principle, that faith is 
" not to be kept with heretics or infidels : And I further 

declare, that it is not an article of my faith, and that 
" I do renounce, reject, and abjure the opinion, that 
" princes, excommunicated by the pope and council, 

or any authority of the see of Rome, or by any autho- 
" rity whatsoever, may be deposed or murdered by their 
" subjects, or any person whatsoever : And I do promise, 

that I will not hold, maintain or abet any such opi- 
" nion, or any othei' opinions contrary to what is ex- 
'* pressed in this declaration : And I do declare, that 

I do not believe that the pope of Rome, or any other 
" foreign prince, prelate, state or potentate hath, or 
" ought to have, any temporal or civil jurisdiction, 
" power, superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indi- 

rectly, within this realm : And I do solemnly, in the 
" presence of God, profess, testify and declare, that I do 
" make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the 
*' plain and ordinary sense of the words of this oath, 
" without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reserva- 
" tion whatever ; and without any dispensation already 

granted by the pope, or any authority of the see of 
" Rome, or any person whatever ; and without thinking 

that I am, or can be, acquitted before God or man, 
" or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, 
" although the pope, or any other person or authority 

whatsoever, shall dispense with or annul the same, or 
" declare it was null and void/^ 



11] APPENDIX. 347 

A similar oath was prescribed to the Irish roman- 
catholics, by the act passed for their rehef in the 33d 
year of his late majesty^ No roman-catholic objects to 
either oath. 



FINIS. 



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